Claes Oldenburg

Swedish-American, b.1929. Though Claes Oldenburg began his career as a writer and freelance illustrator, he is most known for his Pop Art sculpture. Oldenburg was born in Sweden but was educated in the United States and after becoming a citizen in 1953, moved to New York City. It was there that he began experimenting with performance art and plaster sculptures of everyday objects and food. In 1960, he rented space for The Store exhibition which featured these plaster sculptures along with plaster clothing and jewelry.

Two years later, Oldenburg mounted a similar exhibition this time with massive canvas and foam rubber objects. From there, he moved onto creating "soft sculptures" out of plyable vinyl which allowed him to imbue the pieces with suggestive, sexual references. Oldenburg pushes the envelop of size and scale, creating massive sculptures like a clothespin for the city of Philadelphia and a giant spoon with a cherry on the end for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Oldenburg continues producing performances and drawings for sculpture, though many remain conceptual.

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