Claes Oldenburg/Coosje van Bruggen:
The Architect’s Handkerchief

The handkerchief in the breast pocket has gone out of style, at least in the western world but at one time it was the sine qua non of perfect gentleman’s dress. It survives as a symbol in the card slipped into the pocket of a suit when it is returned from our local cleaners, on Downing Street, which exploits the coincidence of its address with that of the Prime Minister of England.

Peter Blake wrote of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: "He is, indeed, something of a dandy in a subdued way: there is generally a very soft, very expensive handkerchief trailing out of his breast pocket, and he obviously likes fine quality in all his personal belongings." ¹

In fact photos of Mies always show a breast handkerchief always in a different arrangement, suggesting that it is not just an ornament. Perhaps he has just had to mop his brow or maybe he wishes to signal his playfulness. We take it as a sign of the architect’s state of mind, his invention. We liken it to the contrast Mies achieves when he places a figurative sculpture in the geometrical environment of the Barcelona pavilion. We did something similar in placing the "Monument to the Last Horse" for a season in front of the Seagram’s building in New York, before its permanent location at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. This sculpture sets out to isolate the handkerchief in its pocket, like a torch, the token of the bearer’s inspiration. We represent it from two view points: the one facing out – the public side, and the one facing the person (the heart) – the private backstage view. Folded pocket handkerchiefs are made to look best from one side, the other side merely gathers the remainder of the fabric.

To give the subject more independence as a sculpture it is tilted leftward, as no breast pocket would be, and the handkerchief emerges opposite to its proper direction.

In order to explore the lost knack of folding the handkerchief according to convention, Coosje went to the conservative haberdashery Brooks Bros. for lessons from a veteran salesman, though in the end, she devised the solution by lifting the square from the center. This is what Mies must have done in the photo chosen from the varations we had seen given the softness and casualness of his handkerchief.

Despite its derivation from the example of Mies, the Architect’s Handkerchief is intended to refer to any combination of rigidity and softness, structure and freedom. It has no particular site though a setting with an architectural character would be best. Like the "Pool Balls" it could be anywhere around town. One could begin by trying one or two of the locations given the loose "Pool Balls" in 1977.

1 Peter Blake, "The Master Builders", New York 1970