1. CLAES OLDENBURGStevie Lee Anell, Patrick Campbell & RebeccaLazenby

2. ABOUT CLAESAmerican artist Claes Oldenburg created works of art which were awonderful blend of reality and fantasy. Oldenburg's artistic success was due inpart to his irreverent humor and incisive social commentary. He took objectsfrom the everyday world such as typewriters, lipstick, a flashlight; lifted themout of their usual context; and forced viewers to reassess their preconceptionsabout the objects.Oldenburg's style changed and developed over the years. He workedin a variety of modes, including drawing, painting, film, soft sculpture, and largescale sculpture in steel. After 1959 he was influenced by the theater. Hisinvolvement in "happenings" in the early 1960s resulted from his interest inboth participatory art and Freudian free association. 3. HISTORYWHERE IS HE FROM?* Claes was born in 1925 in Stockholm, Sweden.* Born to Gsta Oldenburg, and his wife Sigrid Elisabeth ne Lindforss.* Gsta was a Swedish diplomat stationed in New York and later wasappointed Consul General of Sweden to Chicago.* The family moved to Chicago which is where Claes spent a lot of hischildhood. 4. HISTORYHOW DID HE GET INTO ART?* Claes studied literature and art history at Yale University 1946 1950* He then studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.* While furthering his skills, he was a reporter for the City NewsBureau of Chicago.* He also briefly painted at the Oxbow School of Painting, inMichigan.* His early years in New York were shaped by his contact withother artists struggling to move beyond the confines of AbstractExpressionism, including Red Grooms, Allan Kaprow, RobertWhitman, Lucas Samaras, George Segal, and Jim Dine. Allwere interested in art as experience and in pushing to the limitthe question "What is art?" They began to stage "happenings"based in part on the European DADA ethos of the 1920s (and aforerunner to the 1980s performance artists). This was thebeginning of the Pop Art movement. 5. HISTORYHIS FIRST SHOW* 1959, Claes had his first show at the Judson Gallery.* He featured newspaper sculptures, wooden sculptures andpaper-mache objects.Claes Oldenburg. Pastry Case, I. 196162. Painted plaster sculptures on ceramic plates, metalplatter, and cups in glass-and-metal case, 20 3/4 x 30 1/8 x 14 3/4" (52.7 x 76.5 x 37.3 cm).The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection. 2012 ClaesOldenburg 6. POP ART MOVEMENT* Pop art is a 20th Century art movementthat utilized the imagery, style andtechniques of consumerist society andpopular culture, favoured media derivedfigural imagery and the mass reproductionof everyday objects.* Pop artists used common images fromeveryday culture as their sourcesincluding: advertisements and consumergoods, celebrities and photographs andcomic strips.* Bright colours* Some pop artists: Andy Warhol, RoyLichtenstein and Robert Indiana. 7. SERIESTHE STREET 1960* Claes used subject matter that werecommon and commercial objects in hisurban surroundings, he had a series ofinstallations and performances, amongthem were The Street (1960), The Store(1961), which contributed significantly tothe American pop art.* The Street:* The Street (1960), consisted ofcardboard and burlap forms in theshape of cars, signs, or figures, whichthe artist painted in a rough, graffiti likestyle. These torn and tattered objectswere suspended from the ceiling orpropped against gallery walls.Oldenburg employed cast-off materialsto evoke the chaos and brutality of life inthe slums of Chicago and New York. 8. THE STORE 1961* The Store:* The following year embarked on his secondproject The Store, filling a rented storefront withcolourful, enamel-painted plaster reliefs andfree-standing plaster sculptures of everydayitems such as clothing, food and toys.* Were extraordinarily far-seeing in the way theyerased the differences between consumergoods and their perfected images in advertising,not to mention the line separating art from anyother commodity. A mountainous silver cashregister squatting on a pedestal at the center ofthe show seems pulled from the real world(shown below). 9. FIRST URBAN SCALE SCULPTURE* His first sculpture to be realizedin urban scale was he 45 foothigh Clothespin, installed inPhiladelphia in 1976. 10. VIDEO 11. PLASTER SIGNSThree plaster artworks by Claes 12. PEPSI-COLA SIGNPepsi-Cola Sign,Claes Oldenburg, 1961,The Museum of Modern Art.DETAILS:Muslin soaked in plaster over wire frame &painted with enamel, 58 1/4 x 46 1/2 x 71/2 in.* The Pepsi sign is American asapple pieUses the same red, white andblue that the American flag does patriotism.* Role of the capitalist economy 13. RED TIGHTS WITH FRAGMENT 9Red Tights with Fragment 9,Claes Oldenburg, 1961,The Museum of Modern Art.DETAILS:Muslin soaked in plaster over wire frame, painted withenamel. 69 5/8 x 34 1/4 x 8 3/4" (176.7 x 87 x 22.2 cm).* Vision of a pair of red teenage tightsseen in the wind at the corner of AvenueA and 14th Street.* Display of merchandise, but its jaggededges and the single number 9 alsolend it the appearance of a tornadvertisement. 14. 7-UP, Claes Oldenburg,1961, The Museum of Modern Art.DETAILS:Enamel on plaster-soaked cloth on wire,55 x 39 1/4 x 5 7-UP SIGN* Crumpled surface and sloppily appliedpaint relate to the then dominant gesturalaesthetics of abstract expressionism, andto the messiness of street trash.* Bright enamel paint on 7-up mimics thereal product and also alludes to the brashcolours of billboards and advertisements. 15. SOFT WORKThree soft artworks by Claes 16. FRENCH FRIES AND KETCHUPFrench fries and ketchup,Claes Oldenburg, 1963,Whitney Museum of American Art,New York, USADETAILS:Made from: Vinyl and kapok on wood base10 1/2 x 42 x 44 in. (26.67 x 106.68 x 111.76 cm)* Main notions and ideologies of theabundance of consumerism.* Bright poppy red is coating theneutral and bland colours of the friesand plate.* Symbolism- pop culture, blandsociety 17. FLOOR BURGERFloor Burger,Claes Oldenburg, 1962,Collection Art Gallery of Ontario,TorontoDETAILS:Made from: Canvas filled with foam rubber andcardboard boxes, painted with acrylic paint132.1x213.4 cms* This massice over-sized version ofa 20th century icon evokes a senseof incredulity.* Imitation of one of the worlds mostpotent symbols of American culture 18. FLOOR CAKEFloor Cake,Claes Oldenburg, 1962,The Museum of Modern Art,New York, USADETAILS:Made from: Synthetic polymer paint and latexon canvas filled with foam rubber andcardboard boxes58 3/8" x 9' 6 1/4" x 58 3/8" (148.2 x 290.2 x148.2 cm)* Strong emphasis on the distasteand saturation that was occurringduring the revolution that wasoccurring. 19. HARD WORKThree hard artworks by Claes 20. SPOONBRIDGE AND CHERRYSpoonbridge and Cherry,Claes Oldenburg, 1985-1988,Minneapolis, USADETAILS:Made from: aluminum, stainless steel, paintSIZE* Installed in Minneapolis SculptureGarden in 1988.* Oldenburg has used a spoon as amotif or theme in drawings or studiessince the early 1960s.* Spoonbridge and Cherry hasbecome a landmark for Minneapolisand this whimsical sculpture is afavourite among visitors to the WalkerArt Centre. 21. SHUTTLECOCK/BLACKBERRY PIE IIShuttlecock/Blackberry Pie II,Claes Oldenburg, 1999Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,USADETAILS:Made from: cast aluminum painted with acrylic urethane.SIZE.* Transformed a shuttlecock into a pie inthe sky, a lovely slice of blackberry pie. 22. DROPPED CONEDropped Cone, Claes Oldenburg, 2001Neumarkt Galerie, Cologne, GermanyDETAILS:Made from: fiber-reinforced plastic, balsa wood; painted withpolyester gelcoat39 ft. 10 in. (12.1 m) high x 19 ft. (5.8 m) diameter;* He placed the sculpture on the roof of themall. So it could become part of thearchitecture around it.* Through its location and shape, it drawsparallels church spires and the modernchurch.* The sculpture was commissioned by theowners of the Neumarkt Galerie - a shoppingcentre. 23. COMPARISON 24. ARTIFACT 25. THE ENDTHANKYOU