Claes Oldenburg

An American sculptor of Swedish descent, an outstanding representative of Pop art. Claes Oldenburg began his career in New York, where he participated in numerous happenings and performances with artists such as Jim Dine, Allan Kaprow and George Segal. He became an integral part of Pop art in the early 1960s, contrasting his simple and familiar perceptions with the complex aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism. Having exhibited “fake” things in the window of a “fake” store, created from the most unusual materials, the artist surprised the audience and instantly became widely known.

Claes Oldenburg is known for his “soft” sculptures and large-scale installations, which are everyday items enlarged to incredible sizes. Huge clothespins, needles with threads, umbrellas and bicycles, ice cream cones and hamburgers were made with amazing accuracy and a considerable amount of humor. These items, often located in the most unusual and inappropriate style places, become symbols of the city in which they are installed and invariably attract the attention of tourists who love to be photographed near such original art objects.

Claes Oldenburg created his public works in collaboration with his wife Coosje van Bruggen, whom he met at an exhibition in Amsterdam. Together, the sculptors created hundreds of bright and extraordinary works – they make the viewer leave the familiar pattern of thinking and think about the relativity of things and concepts accepted in society.

Claes Oldenburg is one of the six great artists of our time, whose work is presented at the so-called “Lunar Museum”. The “Museum” looks like a small ceramic plate, which supposedly was secretly attached to the aircraft and went to the moon, where it remained forever. In addition to Claes Oldenburg, the art of earthlings was presented by such artists as Robert Rauschenberg, David Novros, John Chamberlain, Forrest Myers and Andy Warhol.

Key ideas:

– Claes Oldenburg is the founder of the sculpture of Pop art. He was one of the first to create volumetric compositions corresponding to the aesthetics of this movement, choosing recognizable and familiar things for his creations. The objects of the sculptor’s works were the most mundane objects, which in his interpretation acquired a completely different style and meaning. The artist himself called them “anti-sculptures,” since these statues had nothing to do with the classical understanding of this kind of fine art.

– Unlike Jasper Johns, who made bronze statues of such ordinary things as beer cans, Oldenburg tried to make objects as close to the original as possible. However, at the beginning of his creative career, the artist used the most inappropriate materials for his work. For example, he sewed a hamburger from soft fabric, stuffing it with newspapers, and fried meat on a stove made from plaster and cardboard, and then painted the product with oil paints. His models were incredibly plausible. When the viewer discovered a deception, he was surprised and amazed that the usual things could turn out to be something completely different than they always were.

– Of great importance is the size of the sculptures by Oldenburg. The increase of small objects to an implausible scale makes them interesting and unusual. Standing next to the master’s works, the viewer feels like he is in a country of giants or a fairy-tale looking glass, where familiar objects make you feel small and defenseless like a bug.

– The works of Claes Oldenburg are not just enlarged objects. They were created either with soft humor or with cynicism, harshly criticizing the absurdity of American culture obsessed with consumption and thirst for possession of various things. Household items that cannot be picked up and used for their intended purpose indicate that many consumer goods are not needed by a person but are just an acquisition imposed by marketing.

– Many art critics call Claes Oldenburg the most surrealist representative of Pop art. While his colleagues use images of comics or advertising, depicting a flat two-dimensional space, he creates his voluminous world. Filled with unrealistically huge or unexpectedly “soft” forms, the artist’s world resembles a strange dream, sometimes associated with the works of Salvador Dali – for example, with his melting watch and elephants on incredibly long legs.