About The Work
In 1962, Claes Oldenburg debuted his revolutionary soft sculptures at the Green Gallery in New York. Three giant, squishy forms in the shape of an ice cream cone, a hamburger, and a slice of cake, swelled across the gallery floor, forever changing the way we define sculpture. It has been noted that Oldenburg's early work was largely inspired by Yayoi Kusama's hand-sewn phallic-shaped soft sculptures that enveloped the surfaces of ironing boards, sofas, and boats.
Ranging from the infamous voluminous hamburgers to ballistic badminton shuttlecocks, Oldenberg's colossal sculptures replicate commonplace objects on a grand scale, often disrupting the environment they inhabit with curious and playful subtexts. The confrontational nature of Oldenberg's sculptures places an emphasis on the viewer, asking us to reconsider our relationship to these recognizable, but obscure, objects.
During the mid-1970s, Oldenburg created a handful of erotic etchings featuring humorous juxtapositions and zany power dynamics. In this work, Oldenburg details a group of women, their languorous figures are strewn about as they surround the oversized phallus behind them.
This intricate etching is based on the 1965 drawing "Clinical Study Towards a Heroic-Erotic Monument in the Academic / Comic Style", now in the permanent collection at MoMA.
Courtesy of Caviar20
About Claes Oldenburg
From The Magazine
- Interviews & Features: 8 solid choices for your first sculpture buy
- News & Events: Hop to It: 4 Reasons to Collect Claes Oldenburg's 'Calico Bunnies'
- Interviews & Features: Art Road Trip! 10 Public Sculptures Worth Driving Cross-Country For
- Art 101: "Art Is Not About Skill": Benjamin Buchloh Interviews Lawrence Weiner On His Sensual Approach to Conceptual Art
- Interviews & Features: “Art Architect” Peter Marino on How He Became the Dark Prince of Luxury
Etching printed in mauve on a Wookey Hole handmade paper
25.50 x 32.75 in
64.8 x 83.2 cm
This work is signed, numbered and dated by the artist.
About The Work
In 1962, Claes Oldenburg debuted his revolutionary soft sculptures at the Green Gallery in New York. Three giant, squishy forms in the shape of an ice cream cone, a hamburger, and a slice of cake, swelled across the gallery floor, forever changing the way we define sculpture. It has been noted that Oldenburg's early work was largely inspired by Yayoi Kusama's hand-sewn phallic-shaped soft sculptures that enveloped the surfaces of ironing boards, sofas, and boats.
Ranging from the infamous voluminous hamburgers to ballistic badminton shuttlecocks, Oldenberg's colossal sculptures replicate commonplace objects on a grand scale, often disrupting the environment they inhabit with curious and playful subtexts. The confrontational nature of Oldenberg's sculptures places an emphasis on the viewer, asking us to reconsider our relationship to these recognizable, but obscure, objects.
During the mid-1970s, Oldenburg created a handful of erotic etchings featuring humorous juxtapositions and zany power dynamics. In this work, Oldenburg details a group of women, their languorous figures are strewn about as they surround the oversized phallus behind them.
This intricate etching is based on the 1965 drawing "Clinical Study Towards a Heroic-Erotic Monument in the Academic / Comic Style", now in the permanent collection at MoMA.
Courtesy of Caviar20
About Claes Oldenburg
From The Magazine
- Interviews & Features: 8 solid choices for your first sculpture buy
- News & Events: Hop to It: 4 Reasons to Collect Claes Oldenburg's 'Calico Bunnies'
- Interviews & Features: Art Road Trip! 10 Public Sculptures Worth Driving Cross-Country For
- Art 101: "Art Is Not About Skill": Benjamin Buchloh Interviews Lawrence Weiner On His Sensual Approach to Conceptual Art
- Interviews & Features: “Art Architect” Peter Marino on How He Became the Dark Prince of Luxury
Additional Information
- Published by Petersburg Press, London and New York
- Literature: Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg, 1958-1996. Hudson Hills Press in association with Madison Art Center Wisconsin, New York, 1997. Illustration no. 120
- This work is framed.
- Ships in 5 to 7 business days from Canada.
- This work is final sale and not eligible for return.
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