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Claes Oldenburg Art

American, Swedish, 1929-2022

One of the original Pop artists, Claes Oldenburg was born in Stockholm. The son of a Swedish diplomat, he spent his early years in Stockholm and Oslo until the family moved to Chicago in 1937.

Oldenburg attended Yale University, then returned to Chicago, where he worked for a newspaper and also attended drawing classes at the Art Institute. He moved to New York in 1956.

Oldenburg’s early art in New York were works of urban realism in cardboard and paper that were influenced by the work of Dubuffet and the New Realists, and were seen as a brutal response to society. In 1961 Oldenburg rented a storefront on the Lower East Side and sold brightly painted plaster objects as well as three-dimensional and wall reliefs based on hamburgers, pastries, men's and women's clothing, and other commodities. The signature soft sculptures followed, objects of commonplace household objects made of vinyl or canvas stuffed with kapok. These pieces transformed the medium — the soft sculptures are intended to be sensual experiences and commentary on our material world of objects and our relationship to them.

In 1965, still working in vinyl, plaster and cardboard, Oldenburg began making large works termed “Colossal Monuments,” which are large public sculptures with public and private meanings. In the 1970s, Oldenburg was fabricating large-scale works in durable materials such as steel, and working with Coosje van Bruggen, he had received many such public commissions in the United States and Europe.

Find authentic Claes Oldenburg sculptures, prints and other art on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by Art Commerce)

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Artist: Claes Oldenburg
Typewriter Eraser
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in Miami, FL
TECHNICAL INFORMATION Claes Oldenberg Typewriter Eraser 1970 Lithograph 12 1/4 x 9 1/2 in. Edition of 100 Pencil initialed, dated and numbered Acco...
Category

1970s Contemporary Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Lithograph

Geometric Mouse Scale E 'Desktop'
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in Miami, FL
TECHNICAL INFORMATION: Claes Oldenburg Geometric Mouse Scale E 'Desktop' 2013 Painted aluminum sculpture on painted aluminum base 6 1/2 x 8 1/4 x 6 1/...
Category

2010s Pop Art Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Aluminum

Dance Costume in the Form of Fag ends with Fallen Dancer
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in Miami, FL
TECHNICAL INFORMATION Claes Oldenberg Dance Costume in the From of Fag Ends with Fallen Dancer 1972 Lithograph 17 3/4 x 14 1/2 in. Edition of 50 Pencil ...
Category

1970s Contemporary Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Lithograph

Typewriter Eraser
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in Miami, FL
TECHNICAL INFORMATION: Claes Oldenburg Typewriter Eraser 1970 Graphite and watercolor on paper 14 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. Pencil signed and dated Accompan...
Category

1970s Contemporary Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Watercolor, Graphite

"20th Century Collage"
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in New York, NY
Claes Oldenburg "20th Century Collage" Margo Leavin Gallery, 1991 Exhibition Poster 24 x 18 inches Signed This is an exhibition poster from "20th...
Category

1990s Contemporary Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Offset

Sculpture in the Form of Trowel Stuck in Ground (Model)
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in London, GB
Painted wood and fabric construction, 1969, a unique work, overall: 1118 x 756 x 635 mm (44 x 29¾ in.)
Category

1960s Pop Art Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Fabric, Wood

Claes Oldenburg Parade of Women lithograph (1 cent life)
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Claes Oldenburg Parade of Women (from One Cent Life), 1964: Lithograph printed in colors. 16.25 x 22.75 in (41.28 x 57.79 cm). Minor signs of handling; otherwise excellent overall v...
Category

1960s Pop Art Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Lithograph

Pickaxe (Spitzhacke) Superimposed on a Drawing of the Site by E.L. Grimm
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in Missouri, MO
Pickaxe (Spitzhacke) Superimposed on a Drawing of the Site by E.L. Grimm, 1982 By Claes Oldenburg (Swedish, American, 1929-2022) Unframed: 26" x 20" Framed: 28.75" x 22.75" Signed and Dated Lower Right Whimsical sculpture of pop culture objects, many of them large and out-of-doors, is the signature work of Swedish-born Claes Oldenburg who became one of America's leading Pop Artists. He was born in Stockholm, Sweden. His father was a diplomat, and during Claes' childhood moved his family from Stockholm to a variety of locations including Chicago where the father was general consul of Sweden and where Oldenburg spent most of his childhood. He attended the Latin School of Chicago, and then Yale University where he studied literature and art history, graduating in 1950, the same year Claes became an American citizen. Returning to Chicago, he enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1952 to 1954 and also worked as a reporter at the City News Bureau. He opened his own studio, and in 1953, some of his satirical drawings were included in his first group show at the Club St. Elmo, Chicago. He also painted at the Oxbow School of Painting in Michigan. In 1956, he moved to New York where he drew and painted while working as a clerk in the art libraries of Cooper-Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration. Selling his first artworks during this time, he earned 25 dollars for five pieces. Oldenburg became friends with numerous artists including Jim Dine, Red Grooms and Allan Kaprow, who with his "Happenings" was especially influential on Oldenburg's interest in environmental art. Another growing interest was soft sculpture, and in 1957, he created a piece later titled Sausage, a free-hanging woman's stocking stuffed with newspaper. In 1959, he had his first one-man show, held at the Judson Gallery at Washington Square. He exhibited wood and newspaper sculpture and painted papier-mache objects. Some viewers of the exhibit commented how refreshing Oldenburg's pieces were in contrast to the Abstract Expressionism, a style which much dominated the art world. During this time, he was influenced by the whimsical work of French artist, Bernard Buffet, and he experimented with materials and images of the junk-filled streets of New York. In 1960, Oldenburg created his first Pop-Art Environments and Happenings in a mock store full of plaster objects. He also did Performances with a cast of colleagues including artists Lucas Samaras, Tom Wesselman, Carolee Schneemann, Oyvind Fahlstrom and Richard Artschwager, dealer Annina Nosei, critic Barbara Rose, and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer. His first wife (1960-1970) Pat Muschinski, who sewed many of his early soft sculptures, was a constant performer in his Happenings. This brash, often humorous, approach to art was at great odds with the prevailing sensibility that, by its nature, art dealt with "profound" expressions or ideas. In December 1961, he rented a store on Manhattan's Lower East Side to house "The Store," a month-long installation he had first presented at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York. This installation was stocked with sculptures roughly in the form of consumer goods. Oldenburg moved to Los Angeles in 1963 "because it was the most opposite thing to New York I could think of". That same year, he conceived AUT OBO DYS, performed in the parking lot of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in December 1963. In 1965 he turned his attention to drawings and projects for imaginary outdoor monuments. Initially these monuments took the form of small collages such as a crayon image of a fat, fuzzy teddy bear looming over the grassy fields of New York's Central Park (1965) and Lipsticks in Piccadilly Circus, London (1966). Oldenburg realized his first outdoor public monument in 1967; Placid Civic Monument took the form of a Conceptual performance/action behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, with a crew of gravediggers digging a 6-by-3-foot rectangular hole in the ground. Many of Oldenburg's large-scale sculptures of mundane objects elicited public ridicule before being embraced as whimsical, insightful, and fun additions to public outdoor art. From the early 1970s Oldenburg concentrated almost exclusively on public commissions. Between 1969 and 1977 Oldenburg had been in a relationship with Hannah Wilke, feminist artist, but in 1977 he married Coosje van Bruggen, a Dutch-American writer and art historian who became collaborator with him on his artwork. He had met her in 1970, when she curated an exhibition for him at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Their first collaboration came when Oldenburg was commissioned to rework Trowel I, a 1971 sculpture of an oversize garden tool, for the grounds of the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands. Oldenburg has officially signed all the work he has done since 1981 with both his own name and van Bruggen's. In 1988, the two created the iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota that remains a staple of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden as well as a classic image of the city. Typewriter Eraser...
Category

20th Century American Modern Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Etching, Aquatint, Photogravure

Colossal Flashlight in Place of Hoover Dam
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in Missouri, MO
Colossal Flashlight in Place of Hoover Dam, 1982 By Claes Oldenburg (Swedish, American, 1929-2022) Signed Lower Right Dated Middle Right Unframed: 23" x 22" Framed: 36.5" x 27.5" Whimsical sculpture of pop culture objects, many of them large and out-of-doors, is the signature work of Swedish-born Claes Oldenburg who became one of America's leading Pop Artists. He was born in Stockholm, Sweden. His father was a diplomat, and during Claes' childhood moved his family from Stockholm to a variety of locations including Chicago where the father was general consul of Sweden and where Oldenburg spent most of his childhood. He attended the Latin School of Chicago, and then Yale University where he studied literature and art history, graduating in 1950, the same year Claes became an American citizen. Returning to Chicago, he enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1952 to 1954 and also worked as a reporter at the City News Bureau. He opened his own studio, and in 1953, some of his satirical drawings were included in his first group show at the Club St. Elmo, Chicago. He also painted at the Oxbow School of Painting in Michigan. In 1956, he moved to New York where he drew and painted while working as a clerk in the art libraries of Cooper-Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration. Selling his first artworks during this time, he earned 25 dollars for five pieces. Oldenburg became friends with numerous artists including Jim Dine, Red Grooms and Allan Kaprow, who with his "Happenings" was especially influential on Oldenburg's interest in environmental art. Another growing interest was soft sculpture, and in 1957, he created a piece later titled Sausage, a free-hanging woman's stocking stuffed with newspaper. In 1959, he had his first one-man show, held at the Judson Gallery at Washington Square. He exhibited wood and newspaper sculpture and painted papier-mache objects. Some viewers of the exhibit commented how refreshing Oldenburg's pieces were in contrast to the Abstract Expressionism, a style which much dominated the art world. During this time, he was influenced by the whimsical work of French artist, Bernard Buffet, and he experimented with materials and images of the junk-filled streets of New York. In 1960, Oldenburg created his first Pop-Art Environments and Happenings in a mock store full of plaster objects. He also did Performances with a cast of colleagues including artists Lucas Samaras, Tom Wesselman, Carolee Schneemann, Oyvind Fahlstrom and Richard Artschwager, dealer Annina Nosei, critic Barbara Rose, and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer. His first wife (1960-1970) Pat Muschinski, who sewed many of his early soft sculptures, was a constant performer in his Happenings. This brash, often humorous, approach to art was at great odds with the prevailing sensibility that, by its nature, art dealt with "profound" expressions or ideas. In December 1961, he rented a store on Manhattan's Lower East Side to house "The Store," a month-long installation he had first presented at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York. This installation was stocked with sculptures roughly in the form of consumer goods. Oldenburg moved to Los Angeles in 1963 "because it was the most opposite thing to New York I could think of". That same year, he conceived AUT OBO DYS, performed in the parking lot of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in December 1963. In 1965 he turned his attention to drawings and projects for imaginary outdoor monuments. Initially these monuments took the form of small collages such as a crayon image of a fat, fuzzy teddy bear looming over the grassy fields of New York's Central Park (1965) and Lipsticks in Piccadilly Circus, London (1966). Oldenburg realized his first outdoor public monument in 1967; Placid Civic Monument took the form of a Conceptual performance/action behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, with a crew of gravediggers digging a 6-by-3-foot rectangular hole in the ground. Many of Oldenburg's large-scale sculptures of mundane objects elicited public ridicule before being embraced as whimsical, insightful, and fun additions to public outdoor art. From the early 1970s Oldenburg concentrated almost exclusively on public commissions. Between 1969 and 1977 Oldenburg had been in a relationship with Hannah Wilke, feminist artist, but in 1977 he married Coosje van Bruggen, a Dutch-American writer and art historian who became collaborator with him on his artwork. He had met her in 1970, when she curated an exhibition for him at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Their first collaboration came when Oldenburg was commissioned to rework Trowel I, a 1971 sculpture of an oversize garden tool, for the grounds of the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands. Oldenburg has officially signed all the work he has done since 1981 with both his own name and van Bruggen's. In 1988, the two created the iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota that remains a staple of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden as well as a classic image of the city. Typewriter Eraser...
Category

20th Century American Modern Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Paper, Lithograph

Proposal for a Cathedral in the Form of a Sink Faucet for Lake Union, Seattle WA
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in New York, NY
Offset lithograph in four colors on BFK paper (Edition of 300) Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in pencil, recto This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City.
Category

1970s Other Art Style Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Lithograph

Pile of Erasers
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in Miami, FL
TECHNICAL INFORMATION Claes Oldenburg Pile of Erasers 1975 Lithograph 23 3/8 x 29 1/8 in. Edition B.A.T. Pencil signed and annotated B.A.T. Accompanied with COA by Gregg Shienbaum ...
Category

1970s Contemporary Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Lithograph

Fagend Study
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in London, GB
Cast aluminium, hand painted with enamel, conceived 1968, executed 1976, stamped with the artist’s initials, inscribed with title, number, and date on the end of the filter, from the...
Category

1960s Pop Art Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Metal, Enamel

Proposed Monument for Alcatraz Island
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in San Francisco, CA
Edition of 150 Offset lithograph
Category

1970s Claes Oldenburg Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Boules with Eventails - Sculpture for a Stair
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in San Francisco, CA
Collaboration with Coosje van Bruggen
Category

Claes Oldenburg Art

Claes Oldenburg art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Claes Oldenburg art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of orange, blue, purple and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Claes Oldenburg in lithograph, etching, paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Pop Art style. Not every interior allows for large Claes Oldenburg art, so small editions measuring 6 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Albert Al Hirschfeld, Larry Rivers, and Romare Bearden. Claes Oldenburg art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $150 and tops out at $120,000, while the average work can sell for $2,800.

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