Claes Oldenburg: Art is in every simple thing

Claes Oldenburg has spent a long life with converting everyday life into art with the simplest means.

Friendly art, mischievous art, a little ironic art - in short the kind of art that many people see as a welcome enrichment of their everyday life. Claes Oldenburg's art see so many people as a welcome enrichment of their everyday life that he is one of the most important representatives of American pop art , on a level with Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein .

But Andy Warhol is No. 1 in the world's best list of art, while Claes Oldenburg can only be found in 80th place. At the moment, around 2008 it was almost in 50th place, since then the curve fluctuates between about 60 and 80. At Andy Warhol there is no curve, but only one in the immovable place 1.

With many different answers, it is to be justified why this is the case, behind which there is a single common principle: in societies with many unsettled people, all sheep run after a leader because they do not dare to represent their own opinion. And the leader is always the one who roars the loudest, in this case, clearly Andy Warhol ... but unlike the dark new figures on the political stage, he at least did not compete with the intent to harm his followers.

Claes Oldenburg's path to art

Claes Oldenburg was born in Stockholm in 1929, but was only allowed to enjoy very carefree Swedish childhood: his father was stationed as a Swedish diplomat in New York, where Oldenburg initially grew up from 1930 to 1933.

In the sixth and seventh year of life, Oldenburg was allowed to count in Oslo Wichtel in Norwegian, not quite home, but the little Claes certainly had "more Sweden" in Oslo than in New York.

Perhaps he even read one of the Christmas stories that Astrid Lindgren published anonymously in a Stockholmer newspaper in 1933 as a literary early act? Lindgren wrote anonymously short stories for magazines for many years and became more randomly a writer than her daughter, lying sick in bed, in 1941 Pippi Longstocking and asked for stories about the newlyborn protagonist.

Astrid Lindgren invented stories and with Pippi Longstocking and also wrote them down; "Pippi Longstocking" was rejected by the first publishers in 1944 and won the 1st prize in 1945 in a competition of the second publisher ... But Claes Oldenburg could not guess in 1936 that an important heroine was soon to be created in the north, rather followed his parents to Chicago, where his father was appointed as a general consul of Sweden and where Oldenburg went to school until 1946.

It was certainly also more important in this way of having largely escaped the World War II in domestic Europe.

Oldenburg attended the Noble Latin School of Chicago , a private day school in gold coast neighborhood, where he also graduated from school in 1946. From the Latin School, the way to Yale open (for just awakened late risers and post-Yborns: This means the Yale University, the third oldest university in the United States and one of the best known of these elite bunkers who spit out in addition to rapidly great people, such as the Bush brothers), Oldenburg studied art and English literature there from 1946 to 1950.

If Oldenburg should ever have been hindered by the parents' house in its free development (which in diplomatic households should be less likely to be expected than in the average budget because diplomats travel through the world and because the world is experiencing world experiences), after its degree in Yale, it was history:

Oldenburg took courses at the Art Institute in Chicago . The Art Institute of Chicago consists of an art museum (which was named the best museum in the world in the "Tripadvisor Travelers 'Choice" in the "Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice" in 2014) and an art college, and it has arisen on the initiative of wealthy citizens, but like most art institutions on the road.

For the last time, the Art Institute of Chicago surprised the general public when Vincent van Gogh's "Bedroom in Arles" in Chicago replied in 2016 and rental together with the advertising agency Leo Burnett (Marlboro man and more) via Airbnb.

Leo Burnett Chicago was just right, since the agency quickly lost the energy killer MC Donalds (Kids, Tweens and region of Chicago), the sugar bomb Kellogg's Special K and also the (spot-like?) Chevrolet Silverado as customers-against allway-ultra campaigns for the only remaining large customer. Gamble is certainly a 100%profit in everyday work.

Airbnb is all right anyway that provides you with tax -free money, but the actual winner was the Art Institute of Chicago, which in this way hardly drew attention van Gogh

But that was 66 devilish years later, we were still in 1950, Claes Oldenburg had just turned 21 and, like every young person (in times when the exploitation is not lurking behind every second work), sought independence, which is why he worked as a journalist and graphic artist for Chicago during his studies.

In 1953 Oldenburg exhibited for the first time, satirical drawings , as his pictures from the early days largely depicted, but strongly shaped by abstract expressionism . In the same year he opened his own studio and became a citizen of the United States - Oldenburg was ready to conquer the art world, the art world was just not quite ready for him.

That is why Oldenburg moved to the middle of the American art world in 1956, to New York City , where he came to a part-time job in the library of the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration .

The rest of the time he met other artists, Jim Dine, Red Gooms, Allan Kaprow, Lucas Samaras, George Segal and many other happening artists who finally solved him from the performing art and aroused his enthusiasm for collages and objects .

From 1958 Oldenburg, objects from paper mache and waste to be made and to obtain them with colorful fabric, with which his first exhibition with three -dimensional work took place (May 1959, Judson Gallery, Judson Memorial Church, Washington Square).

In 1960, his Lower-East-Side neighboring Oldenburg inspired new sculptures , simply rendered figures, letters, characters from cardboard, jute and newspaper; In 1961 he designed sculptures made of rabbit wire, which were covered with plaster -soaked canvas and email paint, everyday objects such as clothing or food.

In 1960, Oldenburg also began to create with his new pop art friends Happenings, "Ray Gun Theater" with Lucas Samaras, Tom Wesselman, Carolee Schneeman, Oyvind Fahlstrom and Richard Arschwage R, also his first wife Patty Mucha sewed Oldenburg soft sculptures, but was also seen as a constant performer. Art critics discovered bright colors and alienation in his work, but not much more at first.

Art of Claes Oldenburg

Therefore, it took until 1962 until Oldenburg made the breakthrough.

Oldenburg was 33, quite freshly married to Patty Mucha, who was born as Patricia Muschinski in Milwaukee and had come to her husband in fulfilling all clichés: she was one of his nude model when Oldenburg was in the early New York time excursions to the portrait painting (and probably also nude painting , you only needed so little nude model).

Patty Mucha was also an artist and the spouses worked together from now on. Oldenburg had already flirted briefly with "Soft Sculptures" , but the women's stocking, which was constricted in sections with a filling from newspaper, which is now worshiped a "Sausage" Jessesartspace.wordpress.com ), could not really inspire the art world at the time.

Now he started the Softies with Patty again, in 1962 the "Floor Cake" , a piece of Latex on canvas, painted with synthetic polymer color, filled with moss gum and boxes: www.moma.org/collection/works/81450 .

And the "Floor Cone" , an identical way: www.moma.org/collection/works/81461 and as a end of the dull stomach filler of the "Floor Burger" , actually a whopper, complete with Bun, Patty and Pickle.

The special thing about these three works was their dimensions: "Floor Cake" 2.9 x 1.48 x 1.48 meters, "Floor Cone" 3.45 x 1.42 x 1.36 meters, "Floor Burger" 2.13 meters in diameter and 1.3 meters high.

The soft sculptures were the stars of the exhibition in the New York Green Gallery , and they were immediately appealed by the hungry American audience. Even when the giant spirit in the pickup truck was transported to Green Gallery via the West Fifty-Seventh Street, the children cheered in passing cars, in which gallery cheered the adults-everything was fine, Oldenburg was a man.

Sofgrosse cake as art? Seriously?

Whether sofgrosses cake piece, giant spirit or megalomanic burgers-none of this would have the slightest chance of being celebrated as a sensation in the art world. At best as a sensation in the precarious restaurant, the owners of which do not make the owner of the cooking expert from private television on XXL-Restaurant after visiting the cooking expert, but sofgross cake is only suitable once as a hit.

What did people delight about these works of art back then?

Quite simply, it was art for people - as silly she was, this art took people seriously and it was aimed at everyone.

Until the Pop Art there was hardly any cheeky, humorous art; Art was something for educated people who had to be explained by this art and the underlying ideas of even more educated art scientists in "profound" expressions in order to admire them with awe.

But the young artists of the 1960s, Oldenburg and Warhol and Liechtenstein and countless other artists around them, did not want to do art that caused awe; On the contrary: they wanted to reduce the awe from art, and in truly democratic manner produce art for all people. This in turn explains the motifs who wants to make art for all people, gets not far with ivory towers, but should choose motifs that also know all people.

Because of this approach, not only Oldenburg's spirited art found great popularity, here is also the content -based explanation that Warhol was promoted to No. 1 on the art market and Oldenburg in the 50s to 80s.

Because Warhol has tackled the whole thing a bit more radically, he frees the work of art not only from disturbing seriousness, but also very thoroughly from the myth of uniqueness with its serial production.

In general, soup doses as art - Andy Warhol's “Campbell's Soup Cans” also saw the world in 1962 - were already a little outrageous because they were normal everyday food against cake, burger and ice.

The fact that the cans now appeared in polymer paint on 32 canvases (32, because there were 32 types of Campbell's soups), the venerable art science, which could write thick books on the uniqueness of individual works of art, or did it do it, even more thoroughly than any cake and every burger.

Despite the risk of appearing sarcastic: Oldenburg still lives; In terms of popularity in the art world, a rather unfortunate fact; While Andy Warhol had already opened the stage in 1987 and Robert Rauschenberg

But that's all the look at the look back - when Oldenburg conquered the art world, he and Robert Rauschenberg (today No. 13) led the artist lists, was invited to the Biennale and Documenta. He was much more coveted than Andy Warhol for a long time, with just 40 years of life, the MoMA celebrated him in New York with the first big exhibition, that was 1969.

That is probably the funniest or makabre edge of the spirit of optimism in the 1960s: Today, art scientists still write thick books about the works of art and the art of the artists around Oldenburg, Rauschenberg, Warhol, Lichtenstein and Co., who wanted to free art from art science ...

Decades of world -enlarging art

But back to Claes Oldenburg's good mood art (the US poet Frank o 'Hara, who put the works of his artist friends into words until he was run over by a beach buggy in 1966, described as "magical and foreign"):

Burger-mountains and cake pieces in sofa sessions were the first deeds of Claes Oldenburg, followed by huge fries, double-cheekyburger and a cloak-up toilet, and from around 1965 Claes Oldenburg finally decided to optically enlarge our world at least a little through colossal objects:

• In 1969 “Lipstick (Ascending) on ​​Caterpillar Tracks” , Tower Pwky, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
• 1970 the large "Plug"
• 1976 The "Clothespin" , Market St & S 15th St, Philadelphia, PA 19102, USA

Then Coosje van Bruggen together and worked with Oldenburg since she had helped him to set up a work of art on the property of the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo. That was in 1976, in 1977 the two got married and then created "Large scale projects" :

• 1977 “Giant Pool Balls” , sculpture projects Münster
• 1981 "Flashlight" , University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• 1982 “pick -up hoe” , 12 meters high and created for the Documenta 7 in Kassel, is at the Kassel Fuldauer (see below)

And so it continued until the famous "Cupid's Span" from Fiberglas and Stahl (2002, Rincon Park, San Francisco in 2002) and the "Tumbling Tacks" (2009, Kistefos Sculpture Park north of Oslo, last work before van Bruggen's death in the same year).

Oldenburg's last great work so far is the stately "Paint Torch" , a brush made of steel and fiberglass with LED lighting, which was inaugurated in 2001 in front of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

The most beautiful art for art games

These were just a few examples, the world is full of Oldenburg's fun-ironic art. With this art you can be a lot of fun for imaginative people again, e.g. B. as a search game. Who finds the meat plate and the Kuchtellters, the green women's shoes, the cheesecake, the parking sink, the soft Swedish light switch, "Bedroom Ensemble Replicas" and the "Tubes Supported by Its Content" , are all in the world?

An entertaining could also be an excursion to the explanatory art if the debate is based on a work of art by Claes Oldenburg: Why is there a tie over ten meters high in front of a skyscraper in Frankfurt am Main? What does the artist want to tell us?

Cultural anthropological, contemporary history, textile science, esoteric, media theoretical, religious sociological, uncentometric, pedagogical didactic, cybernetic, engineering geodesic, human medical view?

Some Oldenburg artwork creates a fireworks of recycling ideas : What could you do with the "garden hose with a tap" , Freiburg im Breisgau, as to leave it around in the park?

All not very venerable approach to Claes Oldenburg-Kunst, which would certainly like the artist.

Claes Oldenburg: public life, exhibitions, awards

Artists No. 80 In the world you won't be without public presence. Claes Oldenburg has been seen in over 1,000 exhibitions since the 1960s When the impression arose that Claes Oldenburg Brother Richard E. Oldenburg, art scientist and from 1972 to 1993 director of the MoMA, had the hand in the game, this impression was corrected in 2009:

This year Claes Oldenburg sold his sculpture "Typewriter Eraser" (from 1976, one of three pretty big eraser: C1.Staticflickr.com/ ) for $ 2.2 million over Christie's New York, although his brother was Honorary Chairman of Sotheby after his MoMA era until 2000 Chairman from Sotheby and South America ...

Awards and honors

Oldenburg can show stately series of awards

• 1970 Honor Doctor of Oberlin College, Ohio
• 1971 Brandeis University Sculpture Award
• 1972 Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture
• 1975 Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
• 1976 Art Institute of Chicago, First Prize Sculpture Award of the 72nd American Exhibition
• 1977 Medal of the American Institute of Architects
• 1978 Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1979 Honor Doctor Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
• 1980 admission to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1981 Wilhelm-Lehmbruck Prize for Sculpture, Duisburg, Germany
• 1989 Wolf Prize in Arts
• 1993 Brandeis University Creative Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement + Jack I. And Lillian Poses Medal for Sculpture
• 1994 Distinction in Sculpture, Sculpture Center, New York (Oldenburg + van Bruggen)
• 1995 Rolf Schock Foundation Prize, Stockholm, Sweden
• 1995 Honor Doctor Bard College, New York
• 1996 Nathaniel S. Saltonstall Award, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (Oldenburg + van Bruggen)
• 1996 Honor Doctor Royal College of Art, London
• 1996 Honorary Degrees from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, California (Oldenburg + van Bruggen)
• 1999 Honor Doctors University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, England (Oldenburg + van Bruggen)
• 2000 National Medal of Arts, USA
• 2002 Partners in Education Award, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (Oldenburg + van Bruggen)
• 2004 Medal Award of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Oldenburg + van Bruggen)
• 2005 honorary doctor Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia (Oldenburg + van Bruggen)
• 2005 honorary doctor College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan (Oldenburg + van Bruggen)

The artist of happy art, which is usually a good mood in person, now lives in New York, is approaching his 90th decade of life and, as a "big dad of pop art", is constantly taking young artists to take art as little as he has done.

The official website of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen can be reached at www.oldenburgvanbruggen.com and offers a Large scale projects Image Gallery with Case History, the biographies of the artists and selected publications (all in English).

A few days before this article was created, an article about Claes Oldenburg appeared in the New York Times Magazine and - among other things - the mysterious art of tomb he made in New York a long time ago, but hardly anyone knows. Even at the age of 88, Claes Oldenburg can obviously cause surprises, hopefully it will stay that way for a long time ( www.nytimes.com/ , with Slide Show by Claes Oldenburg's art "through the years" ).

Body works by Claes Oldenburg can currently be visited in New York, the exhibition "Shelf Life" in the Pace Gallery can still be viewed until November 11, 2017 (works by Oldenburg/ van Bruggen, in New York this article will appear on the exhibition on November 6th: www.newyork.com/ ); "Three dimensions: Modern & Contemporary Approaches to Relief and Sculpture" in the Acquavella Galleries, Inc. runs until November 17, 2017. Or in the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, where the exhibition "Cultivating The Garden" is open until November 19, 2017. "The Show must go on - from the contemporary art collection" can be visited in the Bern Kunstmuseum by January 21, 2018

Public art collections

If you can't travel there right now, you will find his works in "the couple" public art collections in the world that have acquired Oldenburg art:

• Australia : National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Act
• Belgium : Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels
• Brazil : Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (Mac/USP), São Paulo
• Denmark : Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; Museet for Velvet Art / Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde
• Germany : Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum of Modern Art (MMK), Frankfurt/Main; Hamburger Kunsthalle; Wilhelm Hack Museum Ludwigshafen; Städtische Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Vitra Design Museum because on the Rhine
• Finland : Kiasma - Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki
• France : Musee d´Art Moderne et d`art Contemporain Nice (Mamac), Nice; Center Pompidou, Paris; Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Saint-Étienne (Mamc), Saint-Etienne
• Great Britain : Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, West Sussex; Leeds Art Gallery; Tate Britain and Tate Modern, London
• Canada : National Gallery of Canada-Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada, Ottawa, on; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, On
• Colombia : Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (Mambo), Bogota
• Israel : The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
• Italy : Centro de Arte Moderna e Contemporanea della Spezia (CAMEC), La Spezia; Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina (Madre), Naples; Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (Mart), Rovereto; Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin
• Japan : Kawasaki City Museum; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
• Netherlands : Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Museum Vledder
• Austria : Museum Modern Art Foundation Ludwig (Mumok), Vienna
• Portugal : Berardo Museum, Lisbon
• Spain : Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Alicante (Maca), Alicante; Fundación Joan Miró and Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (Macba), Barcelona
• Sweden : Malmö Konsthall, Malmö; Moderna Museet, Stockholm
• Switzerland : Basel's art museum
• Hungary : Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art Budapest
• USA : Akron Art Museum, Akron, Oh; The University of Michigan Museum of Art (Umma), Ann Arbor, Mi; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Mi; Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT; List Visual Arts Center (LVAC), Cambridge, Ma; Tarble Arts Center, Charleston, IL; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), Chicago, IL;
  Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, CA; Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC; Meadows Museum, Dallas, TX; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX; The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Oh;
  Des Moines Art Center, the Moines, IA; Koehnline Museum of Art, the Plaines, IL; The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Mi; Faulconer Gallery, GRENNELL, IA; The Menil Collection, Houston, TX; Museum of Fine Arts Houston (Mfah), Houston, TX; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Mo; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo; Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture, Knoxville, TN; Samek Art Museum, Lewisburg, PA; Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Ne; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma), Los Angeles, Ca; Moca Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, Ca; The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMOCA), Madison, Wi; The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX; The Margulies Collection, Miami, Fl; Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (Moca), Miami, Fl; Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Mn; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, NY; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY; Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman, Ok; All Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Oh; Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, Oh; Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA; The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Mo;
  The de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, IA; Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford, Ca; University Art Gallery - Indiana State University, Terre Haute, in; Palmer Museum of Art, University Park, PA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL (you could probably have written: In almost every museum of the USA with contemporary art, it would be just a little unfair to those who want to find a museum for the next trip to the USA))

Claes Oldenburg, short short biography

• Claes Oldenburg was born on January 28, 1929 in Stockholm
• 1946 to 1950 studies at Yale University, Art and English Literature.
• From 1950 to 1954 Oldenburg took courses at the Art Institute of Chicago
• Oldenburg showed his art from 1960 in more than 1000 exhibitions all over the world
• In 1960 Oldenburg married his first wife and artist Patty Mucha, after 10 years together this marriage was divorced in 1970
• From 1969 to 1977 Oldenburg lived in a love and working group with the American artist Hannah Wilke
• 1977 married Oldenburg and the artist Coosje van Bruggen
• From 1977 until van Bruggen's death in 2009, numerous joint works of art were created
• In 1992, Oldenburg and van Bruggen Château de la Borde, a small Loire castle in Beaumont-Sur-Dême, where they set up their own small museum with works by Le Corbusier, Charles and Ray Eames, Alvar Aalto, Frank Gehry and Eileen Gray.
• Oldenburg (partly together with Coosje van Bruggen) received numerous awards, prices and honorary documents

Claes Oldenburg about art:

I am for the art that appears in fog from the canal elements in winter. I am for the art that splits when you step on a frozen puddle. I am in the apple for the art of worm. "

(Rarely cited passage from his most famous piece, the semi -satirical manifesto "I am for ..." from 1961).

Claes Oldenburg died at the age of 93 (addendum July 2022)

Claes Oldenburg, the American pop artist, born in Sweden, who is known for his monumental sculptures of everyday objects, died on Monday, July 18, 2022 in his house and studio in the Soho district in Manhattan. He was 93 years old.

His death was confirmed by Adriana Elgarresta, a spokeswoman for the Pace Gallery in New York, who has long represented him together with the Paula Cooper Gallery. All leading daily newspapers, such as the New York Times or the Süddeutsche Zeitung , reported.

Hardly anyone embodied the success story of art in public space like him. And only a few artists had directed the work of Marcel Duchamps and the Ready-Made in their own lanes. The master of monumental humor leaves us an overwhelming legacy ...

Lina cream

Passionate author with lively art interest

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