Oldenburg, Claes (1929-2022)

Found 1 Works by this Artist

Geometric Mouse, Scale X

(1929-2022)

b. 1929 Stockholm Sweden, d. 2022 New York

Claes Oldenburg (Swedish American, 1929 - 2022) Claes Oldenburg is renowned for his sculptures, drawings, and colossal monuments that transform familiar objects into states that imply animation and sometimes revolt. A leading voice of the Pop art movement, Oldenburg came to prominence in the New York art scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s, where he established himself with a series of installations and performances influenced by his surroundings on the Lower East Side.

Moving from early environments such as The Street (1960), The Store (1961), and Bedroom Ensemble (1963), Oldenburg then developed a series of soft sculptures, created with the participation of his first wife Patty Mucha. These took as subjects ordinary, everyday objects, often enlarged, as did a series of fantastic proposals for civic monuments. His accumulation of studio miscellany eventually took the form of the Mouse Museum and Ray Gun Wing (1965–77), which pioneered collection and display as forms of art.

In 1977, Oldenburg married curator and art historian Coosje van Bruggen, with whom he would collaborate for over thirty years. In addition to curatorial and lecturing positions, van Bruggen was the author of many articles and books including monographs on Bruce Nauman, Hanne Darboven, John Baldessari, and Claes Oldenburg. Together, Oldenburg and van Bruggen produced sculptures, drawings, performances, and colossal monuments that transform the familiar into the unexpected. (1)

Oldenburg was born on January 28, 1929, in Stockholm, Sweden, but spent most of his childhood in the United States. After studies at Yale University and the Art Institute of Chicago, he moved to New York City in 1956, where he established himself in the early 1960s with a series of installations and performances influenced by his surroundings on the Lower East Side. Using ordinary, everyday objects as his form of expression, he went on to develop "soft" sculptures and fantastic proposals for civic monuments. Since 1976 he has worked in partnership with Coosje van Bruggen. Together they have executed over forty Large-Scale Projects, which have been inserted into various urban surroundings in Europe, Asia, and the United States. (2)

Source: (1) https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/Oldenburg-van-bruggen (2) http://www.oldenburgvanbruggen.com/

https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/Oldenburg-van-bruggen