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Claes Oldenburg - 1929
Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg was born in Sweden in 1929 and grew up in the
United States, where he trained to be an artist. In the 1960s he became
one of the most important representatives of Pop Art. Initially
Oldenburg was inspired by Jean Dubuffet and made collages and
assemblages from materials such as cardboard and jute: imitations of
objects that he found on the street. In keeping with the spirit of Pop
Art, Oldenburg’s favourite subjects include tools and food. In 1961 he
made an exhibition installation in the form of a shop, selling plaster
copies of food and clothing. His works are playful and surprising, yet
critical. They also question the nature of art itself.
From 1962 his objects increased in size and took on an alienating quality through their use
of scale and unusual materials. He made a wooden replica of a
saw, and textile and foam rubber sculptures of electric plugs. He
emphasised the qualities of these banal objects precisely by denying
them. From 1962 his objects increased in size and took on an alienating quality through their use
From 1965 Oldenburg designed colossal monuments, comprising enormously enlarged banal objects to be sited in existing locations. He depicted these fantasies in collages and drawings; their perspective creates an overwhelming effect. Several of these projects were realised in the 1970s and 1980s. The demands of making public sculptures on such a grand scale led the artist to employ more durable materials, but the subjects remained banal. A trowel, a washing peg, and a screw: these are everyday objects realised on a heroic scale.
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