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Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor, best known for his
public art Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...
installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions of everyday objects. Many of his works were made in collaboration with his wife,
Coosje van Bruggen Coosje van Bruggen (June 6, 1942 – January 10, 2009) was a Dutch-born American sculptor, art historian, and critic.Kino, Carol. January 13, 2009 ''The New York Times''. She collaborated extensively with her husband, Claes Oldenburg. Biography ...
, who died in 2009; they had been married for 32 years. Oldenburg lived and worked in New York City.


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 Latin School of Chicago is a selective private elementary, middle, and high school located in the Gold Coast neighborhood on the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The school was founded in 1888 by Mabel Slade Vickery. Latin S ...
. He studied literature and art history at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
Claes Oldenburg
Guggenheim Collection.
from 1946 to 1950, then returned to Chicago where he took classes at
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum an ...
. While further developing his craft, he worked as a reporter at the
City News Bureau of Chicago City News Bureau of Chicago (CNB), or City Press (1890-2005), was a news bureau that served as one of the first cooperative news agencies in the United States. It was founded in 1890 by the newspapers of Chicago to provide a common source of loc ...
. He also opened his own studio and, in 1953, became a
naturalized citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...
of the United States. In 1956, he moved to New York, and for a time worked in the library of the
Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile (New York City), Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the ...
, where he also took the opportunity to learn more, on his own, about the history of art.


Work

Oldenburg's first recorded sales of artworks were at the
57th Street Art Fair The 57th Street Art Fair is Chicago's oldest juried art fair. Founded in 1948, it is held the first weekend in June annually on 57th Street between Kimbark and Kenwood Avenues, in the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park, directly north of the Unive ...
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 Jim Dine (born June 16, 1935 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American artist whose œuvre extends over sixty years. Dine’s work includes painting, drawing, printmaking (in many forms including lithographs, etchings, gravure, intaglio, woodcuts, ...
,
Red Grooms Red Grooms (born Charles Rogers Grooms on June 7, 1937) is an American multimedia artist best known for his colorful pop art, pop-art constructions depicting frenetic scenes of modern urban life. Grooms was given the nickname "Red" by Dominic ...
, and
Allan Kaprow Allan Kaprow (August 23, 1927 – April 5, 2006) was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well a ...
, whose happenings incorporated theatrical aspects and provided an alternative to the
abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
that had come to dominate much of the art scene. Oldenburg began toying with the idea of soft sculpture in 1957, when he completed a free-hanging piece made from a woman's stocking stuffed with newspaper. (The piece was untitled when he made it but is now referred to as ''Sausage''.)Kristine McKenna (July 2, 1995)
When Bigger Is Better: Claes Oldenburg has spent the past 35 years blowing up and redefining everyday objects, all in the name of getting art off its pedestal
''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
''.
By 1960, Oldenburg had produced sculptures containing simply rendered figures, letters, and signs, inspired by the
Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally ...
neighborhood where he lived, made out of materials such as cardboard,
burlap Hessian (, ), burlap in the United States and Canada, or crocus in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, is a woven fabric usually made from skin of the jute plant or sisal fibres, which may be combined with other vegetable fibres to make rope, n ...
, and newspapers; in 1961, he shifted his method, creating sculptures from
chicken wire Chicken wire, or poultry netting, is a mesh of wire commonly used to fence in fowl, such as chickens, in a run or coop. It is made of thin, flexible, galvanized steel wire with hexagonal gaps. Available in 1 inch (about 2.5 cm) dia ...
covered with plaster-soaked canvas and enamel paint, depicting everyday objects – articles of clothing and food items. Oldenburg's first show which included three-dimensional works, in May 1959, was at the Judson Gallery, at
Judson Memorial Church The Judson Memorial Church is located on Washington Square South between Thompson Street and Sullivan Street, near Gould Plaza, opposite Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. I ...
on Washington Square. During this time, artist
Robert Beauchamp Robert Beauchamp (1923 – 22 March 1995) was an American figurative painter and arts educator. Beauchamp's paintings and drawings are known for depicting dramatic creatures and figures with expressionistic colors. His work was described in the ...
described Oldenburg as "brilliant", due to the reaction that the pop artist brought to a "dull" abstract expressionist period. In the 1960s, Oldenburg became associated with the pop art movement and created many so-called ''happenings'', which were performance art related productions of that time. The name he gave to his own productions was "Ray Gun Theater". The cast of colleagues who appeared in his performances included artists
Lucas Samaras Lucas Samaras (born 1936) is a Greek-American artist. Early life and education Samaras was born in Kastoria, Greece. He studied at Rutgers University on a scholarship, where he met Allan Kaprow and George Segal. Career Samaras participated in K ...
,
Tom Wesselmann Thomas K. Wesselmann (February 23, 1931 – December 17, 2004) was an American artist associated with the Pop Art movement who worked in painting, collage and sculpture. Early years Wesselmann was born in Cincinnati. From 1949 to 1951 he atten ...
,
Carolee Schneemann Carolee Schneemann (October 12, 1939 – March 6, 2019) was an American visual artist, visual experimental artist, known for her multi-media works on the body, narrative, human sexuality, sexuality and gender. She received a Bachelor of Arts, B.A ...
, Oyvind Fahlstrom and
Richard Artschwager Richard Ernst Artschwager (December 26, 1923 – February 9, 2013) was an American painter, illustrator and sculptor. His work has associations with Pop Art, Conceptual art and Minimalism. Early life and art Richard Artschwager was born to Europ ...
, art gallerist
Annina Nosei Annina Nosei (born 1939) is an Italian-born art dealer and gallerist. Nosei is best known for being Jean-Michel Basquiat’s first art dealer and providing him with studio space in the basement of her gallery. From 1981 to 2006, the Annina Nosei Ga ...
, critic
Barbara Rose Barbara Ellen Rose (June 11, 1936December 25, 2020) was an American art historian, art critic, curator and college professor. Rose's criticism focused on 20th-century American art, particularly minimalism and abstract expressionism, as well as ...
, and screenwriter
Rudy Wurlitzer Rudolph "Rudy" Wurlitzer (born January 3, 1937) is an American novelist and screenwriter. Wurlitzer's fiction includes ''Nog'', ''Flats'', ''Quake'', ''Slow Fade'', and ''Drop Edge of Yonder''. He is also the author of the travel memoir, ''Hard ...
. His first wife (1960–1970) Patty Mucha (Patricia Muchinski), who sewed many of his early soft sculptures, was a constant performer in his happenings. His 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. But Oldenburg's spirited art found first a niche then a great popularity that endures to this day. In December 1961, he rented a store on Manhattan's Lower East Side to house "The Store", a month-long installation he had first presented at the
Martha Jackson Gallery Martha Jackson (; January 17, 1907 – July 4, 1969) was an American art dealer, gallery owner, and collector. Her New York City based Martha Jackson Gallery, founded in 1953, was groundbreaking in its representation of women and internati ...
in New York, stocked with sculptures roughly in the form of consumer goods. Oldenburg moved to Los Angeles in 1963 "because it was the most opposite thing to New York ecould think of". That same year, he conceived ''AUT OBO DYS'', performed in the parking lot of the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...
in December 1963. In 1965, he turned his attention to drawings and projects for imaginary outdoor monuments. Initially these monuments took the form of small collages such as a crayon image of a fat, fuzzy
teddy bear A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy be ...
looming over the grassy fields of New York's
Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
(1965) and ''Lipsticks in Piccadilly Circus, London'' (1966).Claes Oldenburg
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
, New York.
In 1967, New York city cultural adviser
Sam Green Sam Green is an American documentary filmmaker. His most recent projects are “live documentaries” in which he narrates a film in-person while musicians perform a live soundtrack. His 2018 project ''A Thousand Thoughts'' features a live score ...
realized Oldenburg's first outdoor public monument; ''Placid Civic Monument'' took the form of a Conceptual performance/action behind the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...
in New York City, with a crew of
gravedigger A gravedigger is a cemetery worker who is responsible for digging a grave prior to a funeral service. Description If the grave is in a cemetery on the property of a church or other religious organization (part of, or called, a churchyard), ...
s digging a 6-by-3-foot rectangular hole in the ground. In 1969, Oldenberg contributed a drawing to the
Moon Museum ''Moon Museum'' is a small ceramic Wafer (electronics), wafer in size,Who ...
. ''Geometric Mouse-Scale A, Black 1/6'', also from 1969, was selected to be part of the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection in
Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Ci ...
. Many of Oldenburg's large-scale sculptures of mundane objects elicited ridicule before being accepted. For example, the 1969 ''
Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks ''Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks'' is a weathering steel sculpture by Claes Oldenburg. It is located at Morse College Courtyard, at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. History Stuart Wrede and a group of fellow Yale archi ...
'', was removed from its original place in
Beinecke Plaza Hewitt University Quadrangle, commonly known as Beinecke Plaza, is a plaza at the center of the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut. It is the home of the university's administration, main auditorium, and dining facilities. The quadr ...
at Yale University, and "circulated on a loan basis to other campuses". English art critic Ellen H. Johnson says that with its "bright color, contemporary form and material and its ignoble subject, it attacked the sterility and pretentiousness of the classicistic building behind it". The artist "pointed out it opposed levity to solemnity, color to colorlessness, metal to stone, simple to a sophisticated tradition. In theme, it is both phallic, life-engendering, and a bomb, the harbinger of death. Male in form, it is female in subject". One of a number of Oldenburg's sculptures that possess interactive capabilities, it now resides in the
Morse College Morse College is one of the fourteen residential colleges at Yale University, built in 1961 and designed by Eero Saarinen. It is adjacent to Ezra Stiles College and the two colleges share many facilities. The current Head of College is Cather ...
courtyard. From the early 1970s on, Oldenburg concentrated almost exclusively on public commissions. His first public work, ''Three-Way Plug'' came on commission from Oberlin College with a grant from the
National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federa ...
. His collaboration with Dutch/American writer and art historian
Coosje van Bruggen Coosje van Bruggen (June 6, 1942 – January 10, 2009) was a Dutch-born American sculptor, art historian, and critic.Kino, Carol. January 13, 2009 ''The New York Times''. She collaborated extensively with her husband, Claes Oldenburg. Biography ...
dates from 1976. They were married in 1977. Oldenburg officially signed all the work he did from 1981 on with both his own name and van Bruggen's. 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 The Kröller-Müller Museum () is a national art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of ...
in
Otterlo Otterlo is a village in the municipality of Ede of province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, in or near the Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe. The Kröller-Müller Museum, named after Helene Kröller-Müller, is situated nearby and has the world ...
in the Netherlands.Carol Kino (January 13, 2009)
Coosje van Bruggen, Sculptor, Dies at 66
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''.
In 1988, the two created the iconic ''
Spoonbridge and Cherry ''Spoonbridge and Cherry'' is a sculptural fountain designed by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. It was funded by a $500,000 donation from art collector Frederick R. Weisman and is permanently located in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden ...
'' sculpture for the
Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...
in
Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...
. It remains a staple of the
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is an park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States. It is located near the Walker Art Center, which operates it in coordination with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. It reopened June 10, 2017 af ...
as well as a classic image of the city. ''
Typewriter Eraser, Scale X ''Typewriter Eraser, Scale X'' is a sculpture of a large-scale typewriter eraser by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Constructed in 1999, this model is located at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. Other models are also loca ...
'' (1999) is in the
National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden is the most recent addition to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is located on the National Mall between the National Gallery's West Building and the Smithsonian ...
. Another well known construction by the duo is the ''
Free Stamp Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procu ...
'' in
downtown Cleveland Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of Cleveland, Ohio. The economic and symbolic center of the city and the Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area, it is Cleveland's oldest district, with its Public Square laid out ...
. In addition to freestanding projects, they occasionally contributed to architectural projects, among them, two Los Angeles projects in collaboration with architect
Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considere ...
: ''Toppling Ladder With Spilling Paint'', which was installed at
Loyola Law School Loyola Law School is the law school of Loyola Marymount University, a private Catholic university in Los Angeles, California. Loyola was established in 1920. Academics Degrees offered include the Juris Doctor (JD); Master of Science in Legal ...
in 1986, and the building-mounted sculpture ''Giant Binoculars'', completed in
Venice Beach Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed b ...
in 1991. The couple's collaboration with Gehry also involved a return to performance for Oldenburg when the trio presented ''Il Corso del Coltello'', in
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, Italy, in 1985; other characters were portrayed by
Germano Celant Germano Celant (11 September 1940 – 29 April 2020) was an Italian art historian, critic and curator who coined the term " Arte Povera" (poor art) in 1967 and wrote many articles and books on the subject. Work Germano Celant was born in Genoa ...
and
Pontus Hultén Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus Hultén (21 June 1924 – 26 October 2006) was a Swedish art collector and museum director. Pontus Hultén is regarded as one of the most distinguished museum professionals of the twentieth century. He was the pioneering ...
. "Coltello" is the source of ''Knife Ship'', a large-scale sculpture that served as the central prop; it was later seen in Los Angeles in 1988 when Oldenburg, van Bruggen and Gehry presented ''Coltello Recalled: Reflections on a Performance'' at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center and the exhibition ''Props, Costumes and Designs for the Performance "Il Corso del Coltello"'' at Margo Leavin Gallery. The city of
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4  ...
, Italy, commissioned the work known as ''
Needle, Thread and Knot ''Needle, Thread and Knot'' (Italian: ''Ago, Filo e Nodo'') is a public artwork in two parts by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen in Piazzale Cadorna, Milan, Italy. Commissioned by the City of Milan as part of the renovations of the Milan Ca ...
'' (Italian: Ago, filo e nodo) which was installed in 2000 in the
Piazzale Cadorna Piazzale Cadorna (''Cadorna Square'') is sited in the centre of Milan, near Cadorna Railway Station. The square are dedicated to Italian Field Marshal Luigi Cadorna, famous for being chief of staff of the Italian army during the First World Wa ...
. In 2001, Oldenburg and van Bruggen created ''Dropped Cone'', a huge inverted ice cream cone, on top of a shopping center in
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
, Germany. Installed at the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and Private university, private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
in 2011, ''Paint Torch'' is a towering pop sculpture of a paintbrush, capped with bristles that are illuminated at night. The sculpture is installed at a daring 60-degree angle, as if in the act of painting. In 2018, ''The Maze'' was included in ''1968: Sparta Dreaming Athens'' at
Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art The Château de Montsoreau-Museum Contemporary Art is a private museum open to the public in Montsoreau, France. It opened 8 April 2016. The permanent collection exhibited at Château de Montsoreau consists of Philippe Méaille's collection of w ...
.


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 Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö i ...
(organized by Pontus Hultén), in 1966; the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
, New York, in 1969; London's
Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
in 1970 (chronicled in a 1970 twin-projection documentary by
James Scott James Scott may refer to: Entertainment * James Scott (composer) (1885–1938), African-American ragtime composer * James Scott (director) (born 1941), British filmmaker * James Scott (actor) (born 1979), British television actor * James Scott (Sh ...
called ''The Great Ice Cream Robbery''); and with a retrospective organized by Germano Celant at the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
, New York, in 1995 (travelling to the
National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...
, Washington, D.C.;
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's or ...
;
Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany) is one of the most visited museums in Germany. Known as the ''Bundeskunsthalle'' for short, it is part of the so-called "Mu ...
, Bonn; and
Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the R ...
, London). In 2002, the
Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
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. Oldenburg is represented by the
Pace Gallery The Pace Gallery is an American contemporary and modern art, modern art gallery with 9 locations worldwide. It was founded in Boston by Arne Glimcher in 1960. His son, Marc Glimcher, is now president and CEO. Pace Gallery operates in New York, L ...
in New York and Margo Leavin Gallery in Los Angeles.


Recognition

In 1989, Oldenburg won the
Wolf Prize in Arts The Wolf Prize in Arts is awarded annually by the not-for-profit Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation, and has been awarded since 1981; the others are in Wolf Prize in Agriculture, Agriculture, W ...
. In 2000, he was awarded the
National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and arts patrons ...
. Oldenburg received honorary degrees from Oberlin College, Ohio, in 1970;
Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mil ...
, Illinois, in 1979;
Bard College Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark. Founded in 18 ...
, New York, in 1995; and
Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It of ...
, 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 Exhibition, 1976; Medal,
American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to ...
, 1977; Wilhelm-Lehmbruck Prize for Sculpture, Duisburg, Germany, 1981; Brandeis University Creative Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, The Jack I. and Lillian Poses Medal for Sculpture, 1993; Rolf Schock Foundation Prize, Stockholm, Sweden, 1995. He was a member of the
American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...
from 1975 on and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...
from 1978.Oldenburg Biography
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and Private university, private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
, Philadelphia.
Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen together received honorary degrees from the
California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in San ...
, San Francisco, California, in 1996;
University of Teesside , mottoeng = Deeds Not Words , established = 1930 – Constantine Technical College1969 – as Teesside Polytechnic 1992 – gained university status , type = Public , endowment = £0.23 m (2019/20) , chancellor ...
, Middlesbrough, England, in 1999;
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design or NSCAD, is a public art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. The univ ...
, Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 2005; the
College for Creative Studies College for Creative Studies (CCS) is a private art school in Detroit, Michigan. It enrolls more than 1,400 students and focuses on arts education. The college is also active in offering art education to children through its Community Arts Par ...
in Detroit, Michigan, in 2005, and the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Mar ...
, 2011. Awards for their collaboration include the Distinction in Sculpture,
SculptureCenter SculptureCenter is a not-for-profit, contemporary art museum located in Long Island City, Queens, New York City. It was founded in 1928 as "The Clay Club" by Dorothea Denslow. In 2013, SculptureCentre attracted around 13,000 visitors. History Fou ...
, New York (1994); Nathaniel S. Saltonstall Award,
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is an art museum and exhibition space located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America. The museum was founded as the Boston Museum of Modern Art in 1936. Since then it has gone through multiple na ...
(1996); Partners in Education Award, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2002); and Medal Award,
School of the Museum of Fine Arts The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusett ...
, Boston (2004). In her 16-minute, 16mm film ''Manhattan Mouse Museum'' (2011), artist
Tacita Dean Tacita Charlotte Dean CBE, RA (born 1965) is a British / German visual artist who works primarily in film. She was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 1998, won the Hugo Boss Prize in 2006, and was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2008. ...
captured Oldenburg in his studio as he gently handles and dusts the small objects that line his bookshelves. The film is less about the artist's iconography than the embedded intellectual process which allowed him to transform everyday objects into remarkable sculptural forms.


Personal life

Patty Mucha, who was married to Claes Oldenburg from 1960 to 1970, first met him after moving to New York City in 1957 to become an artist. When Oldenburg was painting portraits, Mucha became one of his nude models before becoming his first wife. An Oldenburg drawing of Mucha titled ''Pat Reading in Bed, Lenox'', 1959 is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. She was a collaborator in Oldenburg's happenings by coming up with ideas together, making the costumes together, and was also a performer in the piece, along with collaborating on happenings, she also as well, sewed his famous floor hamburger, ice cream, and cake. Mucha was lead singer in the band
The Druds The Druds was a short-lived 1963 avant-garde noise music band founded by Andy Warhol, that featured prominent members of the New York proto-conceptual art and minimal art community. The band's noise rock sound has been compared to that of Henry Flyn ...
who were a band of artists including Andy Warhol, LaMonte Young, Lucas Samaras, and Walter DeMaria pre-velvet underground. Between 1969 and 1977, Oldenburg was in a relationship with the feminist artist and sculptor,
Hannah Wilke Hannah Wilke (born Arlene Hannah Butter; March 7, 1940 – January 28, 1993) was an American painter, sculptor, photographer, video artist and performance artist. Wilke's work is known for exploring issues of feminism, sexuality and femininity. B ...
, who died in 1993. They shared several studios and traveled together, and Wilke often photographed him. Oldenburg and his second wife, Coosje van Bruggen, met in 1970 when Oldenburg's first major retrospective traveled to the
Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
in Amsterdam, where van Bruggen was a curator.Carol Kino (May 15, 2009)
Going Softly Into a Parallel Universe
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''.
The couple were married in 1977. In 1992, Oldenburg and van Bruggen acquired Château de la Borde, a small Loire Valley chateau, whose music room gave them the idea of making a domestically sized collection. Van Bruggen and Oldenburg renovated the house, decorating it with modernist pieces by among others
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
,
Charles and Ray Eames Charles Eames ( Charles Eames, Jr) and Ray Eames ( Ray-Bernice Eames) were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of ...
, and
Alvar Aalto Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, s ...
, Frank Gehry,
Eileen Gray Eileen Gray (born Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith; 9 August 187831 October 1976) was an Irish architect and furniture designer who became a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture. Over her career, she was associated with many notable Euro ...
. 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 Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
America. On July 18, 2022, Oldenburg died at his home in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
from complications of a fall, aged 93.


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 Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémis, t ...
New York in 2009.Claes Oldenburg, ''Typewriter Eraser'' (1976)
Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémis, t ...
Post War with the Contemporary Evening Sale, April 20, 1969.


Gallery


See also

* ''
Cupid's Span ''Cupid's Span'' is an outdoor sculpture by married artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, installed along the Embarcadero in San Francisco, California, in the United States. The sculpture, commissioned by Gap Inc. founders Donald and D ...
'', San Francisco


General and cited references

* Axsom, Richard H., ''Printed Stuff: Prints, Poster, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg A Catalogue Raisonne 1958–1996'' (Hudson Hills Press: 1997) * Busch, Julia M., ''A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s'' (The Art Alliance Press: Philadelphia; Associated University Presses: London, 1974) * Gianelli, Ida and Beccaria, Marcella (editors) ''Claes Oldenburg Coosje van Bruggen: Sculpture by the Way''
Fundació Joan Miró The Fundació Joan Miró ( ; "Joan Miró Foundation, Centre of Studies of Contemporary Art") is a museum of modern art honoring Joan Miró located on the hill called Montjuïc in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain). History The idea for the foundation w ...
2007 * Haskell, Barbara. ''Claes Oldenburg'', Pasadena, CA: Pasadena Art Museum, 1971 * Höchdorfer, Achim, ''Claes Oldenburg: The Sixties'' (Prestel: USA, 2012) * Johnson, Ellen H. ''Claes Oldenburg'', Penguin Books, (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Ringwood, Victoria, Australia), 1971 * Oldenburg, Claes. ''Log May 1974 – August 1976,'' Stuttgart: edition hansjorg mayer, 1976 (Two volume boxed set: "Photo Log" and "Press Log") * Oldenburg, Claes. ''Raw Notes: Documents and Scripts of the Performances: Stars, Moveyhouse, Massage, The Typewriter, with annotations by the author.'' (The Press of the
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design or NSCAD, is a public art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. The univ ...
: Halifax, 2005) * Thalacker, Donald W. "The Place of Art in the World of Architecture." Chelsea House Publishers, New York, 1980. * Valentin, Eric, ''Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van Bruggen. Le grotesque contre le sacré'', Paris, collection Art et artistes, Gallimard, 2009. * Valentin, Eric, ''Claes Oldenburg et Coosje van Bruggen. La sculpture comme subversion de l'architecture (1981–1997)'', Dijon, collection Inflexion, , 2012


Citations


External links


Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's website

The Pace Gallery
* *





* ttp://www.popartmasters.com/toc.html#masters Pop Art Masters – Claes Oldenburg
Biography of Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg in the National Gallery of Australia's Kenneth Tyler collection

An editorial of Oldenburg's work, highlighting five of his large-scale public sculptures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oldenburg, Claes 1929 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American male artists 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American sculptors 21st-century American male artists 21st-century American sculptors Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in New York (state) American male sculptors American pop artists Artists from Stockholm Latin School of Chicago alumni Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts Rolf Schock Prize laureates School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Swedish emigrants to the United States United States National Medal of Arts recipients Wolf Prize in Arts laureates Yale University alumni