Claes Oldenburg Biography and Artwork

born Stockholm (SWEDEN) 1929

The son of a Swedish Consul General, he came to Chicago in 1936. After finishing his studies at Yale University, New Haven, he started to work as a reporter.

In 1952 he attended a course at the Chicago Art Institute, published drawings in several magazines and began to paint pictures influenced by Abstract Expressionism. In 1956 he moved to New York and came into contact with Jim Dine. In 1958 he met Alan Kaprow and took part in his Happenings. In 1958-59 he arranged his first sculptural, Neo-Dadaist assemblages of plaster and garbage soaked in striking colors. These led to his environments (The Street, The Store etc.).

He also started at this time to make replicas of foods like hamburgers, ice-cream and cakes, which prepared the ground for his soft sculptures. In 1964 and 1968 he was represented at the Venice Biennale, and in 1968 and 1972 at the documenta "4" and documenta "5", Kassel. In 1972 he arranged his Mouse Museum. A comprehensive retrospective of his projects, documents and sketches was shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1969.

He was given a retrospective in 1970 by the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. From 1976 he collaborated on large-scale projects with Coosje van Bruggen, whom he married in 1977. He was represented at the documenta "6", 1977, and documenta "7", 1982, at Kassel. He was given a retrospective of his drawings in 1977 by the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and the Kunsthalle Tobingen. His environment Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing was arranged in 1979 at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne.

In 1983 he made his large sculpture of a toothbrush for the Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld. In 1984 he made his proposals for the large project The Course of the Knife for Venice, which was then shown in collaboration with the architect Frank O'Gehry at the Campo dell'Arsenale, accompanied by performances which he took part in himself. He then went on to collaborate with Gehry on other projects related to architecture, e.g. in Boston and Los Angeles. In 1989 the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, organized the exhibition Claes Oldenburg - Coosje van Bruggen, A Bottle of Notes and Some Voyages.

Select Timeline

Select Exhibitions

1975 - 1976 - Claes Oldenburg: Unbekannte Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Gouachen 1954-1974, Museum Haus Lange Krefeld
1975 - Claes Oldenburg: Zeichnungen-Aquarellen-Collagen, 1954-1974. Kunsthalle, Tubingen, Germany.
1975 - Claes Oldenburg, Zeichnungen, Kunstmuseum Basel
1976 - Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna
1976 - Kunstverein im Hamburg
1976 - Claes Oldenburg: Zeichnungen, Objekte, Filme, Stadelsches Kunstinstitut und Stadtische Galerie, Frankfurt
1976 - Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover
1977 - Claes Oldenburg: Tegninger fra 1954 til 1974, Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek
1988 - Claes Oldenburg: Tekeningen / Dessins. Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
1988 - Musee d'Art Contemporain, Nimes, France

Select Artwork

Man's Sock, 1961
Double Nose/Purse/Punching Bag/Ash Tray, 1970
Soft Drum Set, 1972
Fire Plug Souvenir, 1968
Proposal for a Civic Monument in the Form of Two Windows, 1982
Slice of Strawberry Cheesecake, 1992

Quotes

"Theater is the most powerful art form there is because it is the most involving.... I no longer see the distinction between theater and visual arts very clearly... distinctions I suppose are a civilized disease."
"We don't copy the objects we use, we try to transform them and we hope they go on transforming as you look at them. The idea of endless public dialogue.. visual dialogue.. is very important to us."
"I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum."
"If you're an architect you have to make changes to suit your client but we present a finished project."

Publications

Claes Oldenburg: An Anthology - by Claes Oldenburg, Germano Celant, National Gallery of Art (U. S.), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Guggenheim Museum Pubns; 2nd edition (September 1995)
Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen: Sculpture by the Way - by Ida Gianelli, Marcella Beccaria, Skira (March 6, 2007)
Claes Oldenburg: Early Work - by Claes Oldenburg, Julia E. Robinson, Zwirner & Wirth (July 15, 2006)

Quick Facts

Claes Oldenburg is a sculptor, best known for his public art installations.
Oldenburg was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of a Swedish diplomat. As a child he and his family moved to America in 1936.
While further developing his craft, he worked as a cub reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago.
the most memorable aspects of Oldenburg's works are the colossal sculptures that he has made. These sculptures, though quite large, often have interactive capabilities.
Many of Oldenburg's giant sculptures of mundane objects elicited public ridicule before being embraced as whimsical, insightful, and fun additions to public outdoor art.
In the 1960s he became associated with the Pop Art movement and attended many so-called happenings, which were performance art related productions of that time.

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