By 1960, Oldenburg had produced sculptures containing simply rendered figures, letters, and signs, inspired by the Lower East Side neighborhood where he lived, made out of materials such as cardboard, burlap, and newspapers; in 1961, he shifted his method, creating sculptures from chicken wire covered with plaster-soaked canvas and enamel paint, depicting everyday objects – articles of clothing and food items.
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What technique does Claes Oldenburg use?
Whereas Pop artists had imitated the flat language of billboards, magazines, television, etc., working in two-dimensional mediums, Oldenburg's three-dimensional papier maches, plaster models, and soft fabric forms brought Pop art into the realm of sculpture, a key innovation at the time.
Why did Claes Oldenburg make soft sculptures?
Oldenburg began to recreate the human anatomy in his own terms in the late fifties with crude pieces like the papier-mâché leg. In 1962 he hit on a way to make forms that were entirely foreign to the traditional concept of sculpture because they were soft rather than hard, as one expects sculpture to be.
How did Claes Oldenburg become a sculptor?
His father was a diplomat, and the family lived in the United States and Norway before settling in Chicago in 1936. Oldenburg studied literature and art history at Yale University, New Haven, from 1946 to 1950. He subsequently studied art under Paul Wieghardt at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1950 to 1954.
Why does Oldenburg apply his painting in layers?
His soft sculptures are hand-sewn from layers of painted canvas, so they are not soft like a furry animal, but soft as opposed to sculptures made out of wood or stone. Because of this relative softness of the sculptures, gravity, and the effects of gravity, are an integral component of the work.
How does Claes Oldenburg make his art?
By 1960, Oldenburg had produced sculptures containing simply rendered figures, letters and signs, inspired by the Lower East Side neighborhood where he lived, made out of materials such as cardboard, burlap, and newspapers; in 1961, he shifted his method, creating sculptures from chicken wire covered with plaster- ...
How was Floor Burger made?
You could stuff them hard or you could stuff them soft. Those big pieces were so large that the interior space required so much stuffing that I finally decided to stuff them with boxes. GLENN LOWRY: Oldenburg's then wife Patty Mucha sewed the canvas sculptures and then he painted them.
What is the floor burger made of?
Since the work came out of the vault and went on view last fall, we have noted that the canvas forms of Floor Burger are still supple and holding up. The interior is made of polyurethane foam chunks and ice cream cartons, and while the boxes are faring well, the foam is slowly deteriorating.
What is the Bottle of Notes made of?
Situated in Middlesbrough Centre Square, outside Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), the sculpture takes the form of a giant bottle, standing nine metres high – twice the height of a giraffe. The shape of the bottle is made from a continuous, off-white swirl of steel letters.
What inspired Oldenburg?
In the late 1950s, Oldenburg was influenced by Kaprow's "happenings," Duchamp's ready-mades, abstract expressionist painting, and Jim Dine's very unusual approach to art materials. In 1960, Dine and Oldenburg collaborated on a series of environments based on street themes.
What is the Spoonbridge and Cherry made out of?
The sculpture is built from stainless steel and aluminum and coated with polyurethane enamel. The cherry portion of the piece weighs 1,199 pounds (544 kg) while the spoon portion weighs 5,800 pounds (2,630 kg).
What do you mean by pop art?
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the 1950s and flourished in the 1960s in America and Britain, drawing inspiration from sources in popular and commercial culture. Different cultures and countries contributed to the movement during the 1960s and 70s. Roy Lichtenstein.
When was Oldenburg born?
January 28, 1929Claes Oldenburg / Date of birth
What is soft sculpture in art?
Soft sculpture looks at the ways artists use unconventional materials to challenge the nature of sculpture. Visitors will see works made from cloth, rope, paper, hair, leather, rubber or vinyl. The objects may droop, ooze or splash. They are fluffy, squishy or bent.
What was Claes Oldenburg inspired by?
In the late 1950s, Oldenburg was influenced by Kaprow's "happenings," Duchamp's ready-mades, abstract expressionist painting, and Jim Dine's very unusual approach to art materials. In 1960, Dine and Oldenburg collaborated on a series of environments based on street themes.
What type of art did Claes Oldenburg do?
Pop artModern artClaes Oldenburg/Periods
What is Claes Oldenburg best known for?
Today, across the globe, giant apples, toothbrushes and binoculars are instantly recognizable as Oldenburg's creations.
Who is Claes Oldenburg?
Full Article. Claes Oldenburg, in full Claes Thure Oldenburg, (born January 28, 1929, Stockholm, Sweden), Swedish-born American Pop-art sculptor , best known for his giant soft sculptures of everyday objects. Much of Oldenburg’s early life was spent in the United States, Sweden, and Norway, a result of moves his father made as a Swedish consular ...
Who was the Swedish sculptor who created the soft sculptures?
The Swedish-born American sculptor Claes Oldenburg produced several important Happenings (notably The Store [1961]), but by the mid-1960s he was producing his distinctively surreal “soft sculptures,” consisting of vinyl-covered kapok-stuffed enlargements of objects such as hamburgers and cigarette butts.
Who took the styles and objects of popular culture?
United States: The visual arts and postmodernism. Roy Lichtenstein, and Claes Oldenburg took the styles and objects of popular culture—everything from comic books to lipstick tubes—and treated them with the absorption and grave seriousness previously reserved for religious icons.
Who created Spoonbridge and Cherry?
With van Bruggen, Oldenburg created such large-scale sculptures as Spoonbridge and Cherry (1985–88) for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, as well as a soft sculpture of an oversized shuttlecock specially for a 1995 retrospective of his work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Spoonbridge and Cherry, sculpture by Claes Oldenburg ...
Where was Claes Oldenburg born?
Claes Oldenburg was born on January 28, 1929 in Stockholm, the son of Gösta Oldenburg and his wife Sigrid Elisabeth née Lindforss. His father was then a Swedish diplomat stationed in New York and in 1936 was appointed Consul General of Sweden to Chicago where Oldenburg grew up, attending the Latin School of Chicago.
Who were the artists that were involved in the events of the Red Grooms?
There he met a number of artists, including Jim Dine , Red Grooms, and Allan Kaprow, whose Happenings incorporated theatrical aspects and provided an alternative to the abstract expressionism that had come to dominate much of the art scene.
Who was the first wife of the artist?
His first wife (1960–1970) Patty Mucha, who sewed many of his early soft sculptures, was a constant performer in his happenings. This brash, often humorous, approach to art was at great odds with the prevailing sensibility that, by its nature, art dealt with "profound" expressions or ideas.
Where did Oldenburg sell his art?
Main article: List of works by Oldenburg and van Bruggen. Oldenburg's first recorded sales of artworks were at the 57th Street Art Fair in Chicago, where he sold 5 items for a total price of $25. He moved back to New York City in 1956.
Where was Claes Oldenburg born?
Early life and education. Claes Oldenburg was born on January 28, 1929 in Stockholm, the son of Gösta Oldenburg and his wife Sigrid Elisabeth née Lindforss. His father was then a Swedish diplomat stationed in New York and in 1936 was appointed Consul General of Sweden to Chicago where Oldenburg grew up, attending the Latin School of Chicago.
How did Van Bruggen die?
Van Bruggen died on January 10, 2009, from the effects of breast cancer. Oldenburg's brother, art historian Richard E. Oldenburg, was director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, between 1972 and 1993, and later chairman of Sotheby's America.
Why did Oldenburg move to Los Angeles?
Oldenburg moved to Los Angeles in 1963 "because it was the most opposite thing to New York [he] could think of". That same year, he conceived AUT OBO DYS, performed in the parking lot of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in December 1963.
When did Oldenburg and Van Bruggen collaborate?
Their first collaboration came when Oldenburg was commissioned to rework Trowel I, a 1971 sculpture of an oversize garden tool, for the grounds of the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands. Oldenburg has officially signed all the work he has done since 1981 with both his own name and van Bruggen's.
Where are Oldenburg and Van Bruggen's drawings?
In 2002 the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York held a retrospective of the drawings of Oldenburg and Van Bruggen; the same year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York exhibited a selection of their sculptures on the roof of the museum.
Who was Oldenburg's second wife?
Oldenburg and his second wife, Coosje van Bruggen, met in 1970 when Oldenburg's first major retrospective traveled to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where van Bruggen was a curator. They were married in 1977.
Overview
Work
Oldenburg's first recorded sales of artworks were at the 57th Street Art Fair in Chicago, where he sold 5 items for a total price of $25. He moved back to New York City in 1956. There he met a number of artists, including Jim Dine, Red Grooms, and Allan Kaprow, whose happenings incorporated theatrical aspects and provided an alternative to the abstract expressionism that had come to dominate much of the art scene. Oldenburg began toying with the idea of soft sculptur…
Early life and education
Claes Oldenburg was born on January 28, 1929 in Stockholm, the son of Gösta Oldenburg and his wife Sigrid Elisabeth née Lindforss. His father was then a Swedish diplomat stationed in New York and in 1936 was appointed Consul General of Sweden to Chicago where Oldenburg grew up, attending the Latin School of Chicago. He studied literature and art history at Yale University from 1946 to 1950, then returned to Chicago where he took classes at The School of the Art Institute …
Exhibitions
Oldenburg's first one-man show in 1959, at the Judson Gallery in New York, had shown figurative drawings and papier-mâché sculptures. He was honored with a solo exhibition of his work at the Moderna Museet (organized by Pontus Hultén), in 1966; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1969; London's Tate Gallery in 1970 (chronicled in a 1970 twin-projection documentary by James Scott called …
Recognition
In 1989, Oldenburg won the Wolf Prize in Arts. In 2000, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Oldenburg has also received honorary degrees from Oberlin College, Ohio, in 1970; Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, in 1979; Bard College, New York, in 1995; and Royal College of Art, London, in 1996, as well as the following awards: Brandeis University Sculpture Award, 1971; Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, 1972; Art Institute of Chicago, First Prize Sculpture Award, 72nd American …
Personal life
Patty Mucha, who was married to Claes Oldenburg from 1960 to 1970, first met him after she moved to New York in 1957 to become an artist. When Oldenburg was painting portraits, Patty Mucha became one of his nude models before becoming his first wife. An Oldenburg drawing of Patty titled Pat Reading in Bed, Lenox, 1959, is in the collection of The Whitney Museum of American Art. She was a constant performer in Oldenburg's happenings and performed with The …
Art market
Oldenburg's sculpture Typewriter Eraser (1976), the third piece from an edition of three, was sold for $2.2 million at Christie's New York in 2009.
See also
• Cupid's Span, San Francisco
• Coosje van Bruggen