Peaches, pears highlight new High Museum sculpture

<p>The pear weighs about 60 pounds and the blue-bordered tablecloth it sits on is the size of a river raft.</p><p>The gargantuan fruit _ made from reinforced plastic _ is part of a pop-art sculpture by the husband-wife team of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen being installed at Atlanta's High Museum of Art.</p><p>It's the latest big-ticket acquisition by the High, and part of a new gallery expansion set to open Nov. 12.</p><p>Although High leaders commonly refer to the sculpture as "Peaches and Pears," the piece, which cost "$1 million-plus," according to High deputy director Philip Verre, is officially titled "Balzac/Petanque" _ a reference to the 19th-century novelist Honore de Balzac, who hailed from the abundant wine country of the Loire Valley, and a French lawn bowling game.</p><p>The piece features 18 giant peaches and pears, assembled in a traditional still life form, but with several of the fruits tumbling to the ground.</p><p>The High bought 8.5 tons of sand, shipped in 50-pound bags to keep clean, which will be added to the work next month.</p><p>Oldenburg, 76, and van Bruggen, 63, have been creating large, whimsical, one-of-a-kind sculptures for American cities for decades. Miami has a shattered bowl and fruit slices; Kansas City has 17-foot shuttlecocks; Minneapolis has a 5,800-pound spoon holding a plump cherry and Las Vegas has a gigantic flashlight.</p><p>High officials say "Balzac/Petanque" was selected in part because of its peaches. Georgia is known as The Peach State and the High has a Peachtree Street address.</p><p>"It just seemed right," says High director Michael Shapiro.</p><p>Van Bruggen and Oldenburg say they are delighted with the location for the sculpture, which was shipped to the museum in 30 crates from the High's off-site storage facility.</p><p>"The way it is set up on the terrace could not be more beautiful," Van Bruggen said from the couple's New York studio. "I'm not necessarily preferring peaches over pears, but now the piece is situated near Peachtree. That's a very interesting new connotation."</p><p>Oldenburg jokingly says he has a solution.</p><p>"There isn't a Pear Street, too?" he said. "You'll have to make one."</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdcb20)</p>

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