Claes Oldenburg Discovering the Human in American Culture

About the artist Born in Sweden in 1929, came to US as an child moved to New York City, met Allan Kaprow 1960s staged performance art "happenings” which invite audience participation 60s became known as Pop artist but he preferred the term “objective expressionism Zen Buddhism influence Since 1977 has collaborated with wife Coosje van Bruggen to make large scale public sculptures Examples of Oldenburg’s Happenings: Stars in which a waiter carries a tray of plastic “food” and spills it over audience. Store Days which combined theatre performance and real transactions in a “store”

The Store In 1961 OIdenburg turned his studio in Manhattan into a shop like environment. SUBJECTS Featured brightly-painted consumer items. MEDIA Muslin plaster, chicken wire. STYLE How would you describe the STYLE of these works?

Pastry case 1 ( ) Spot the desserts! Do you want to eat these? Why or why not? Materials: enamel painted plaster sculptures built over a wire frame. Appetising or repulsive?

Oldenburg said… “I am for an art that takes its forms from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates and spits and drips, and is as heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself.” Claes Oldenburg, Pie à La Mode 1962 Museum of Contemporary Art, LA. The Muslin soaked in plaster over wire frame, painted with enamel

Floor burger 1962 Oldenburg said he “made symbols of my time”. What kinds of meanings do these symbols have? METAMORPHOSIS by changing scale Looking at this,what do you want to do? FLOOR BURGER m x Painted sail cloth stuffed with foam Oldenburg: “a hamburger is a structural piece of food. It is three circles. Plus if you count the onion and pickle it’s got more. It is structure with a textured surface.”

Hamburger, Popsicle, Price (1962) In pairs, come up with 3 main stylistic differences between Oldenburg’s work and Warhol’s work (below). Explain how each image shows the ideas of the artist.

Floor Cone & Floor Cake (The Store, 1962) This Store was set up in the Green Gallery, NY. How do you think viewers would have responded to these works? What do all these objects have in common? g/claes- oldenburg.html (discussion of Floor Cake) g/claes- oldenburg.html

Oldenburg’s iconography American CONSUMER products e.g. junk food - hamburgers, ice cream cosmetics - toothpaste tubes, lip stick; Home appliances - telephones, typewriters, fan The “absurd” – a toilet What is art? Anything can be art! Element of KITSCH Things that are TRANSIENT – ie. They do not last, part of a disposable culture Tap into basic HUMAN INSTINCTS – e.g. hunger, sex appeal, aggression

Lipstick, Ascending on Caterpillar Tracks (1969) What is the effect of combining the lipstick with a tank? What kind of symbol do they make? What makes this a typical Oldenburg work?

Lipstick, Ascending “The lipstick is adapted in size to the original dimensions of the tank Look like a lethal weapon Both objects linked by the power of aggression (lip stick = sexual aggression) Mirror the dynamics of human movement

Geometric Mouse (Scale C, 1976) 5 versions in different sizes. Original idea came from mouse mask used in early 60s Further developed form after visit Disney studios Parts can be positioned in many different ways What other associations come to your mind when you look at this sculpture? In what ways does this challenge the conventions of sculpture?

Giant Clothes pin (1976) Sculpture outside Philadelphia city hall Why is this work a visual pun? Oldenburg said, “I am for an art that is erotical, mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.”

Dropped Ice Cream Cone (2001) Collaboration with wife Dutch/American pop sculptor Coosje Van Bruggen In Cologne, Germany on top of a shopping centre Icecream cone - a symbol of an affluent society. However artists have reordered it so the cone is upside down, enormous melting and collapsing.  suggests the excesses and vulgarity of life in the developed Western world?

Summary Key interests of the artist Making objects seem human Whimsical humour / Sense of the absurd Enjoyment of multiple meanings Metamorphosis – showing things in flux, objects with changed shape / size Integrating art with everyday life Challenging the nature of art, and high art / low art divide. Perception. Making the familiar strange