sᴇʟᴇᴄᴛᴇᴅ ᴀʀᴛᴡᴏʀᴋ: ᴄʟᴀᴇs ᴏʟᴅᴇɴʙᴜʀɢ, ғʟᴏᴏʀ ᴄᴀᴋᴇ, 1962
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Early Career
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son of Swedish diplomat, born in Stockholm, Sweden
in 1929, lived in US and Norway, settle in Chicago (1936)
become American citizen at age of 24, in 1953
undergraduate study at Yale University
majored in literature and art history in 1950
studied art under Paul Wieghardt at Art Institute of Chicago
from 1950-1954
worked as reporter at City News Bureau of Chicago during
first two years
moved to NY in 1956, met artists experimenting in performance
art: George Brecht, Allan Kaprow, George Segal, Robert
Whitman, ushered into avant-garde downtown scene
constructed environment, The Street, for first major gallery
show at Judson Gallery in 1960
consisted of silhouettes made from trash set in garbage
first Happening, Snapshots from the City, culminated in fake
yard sale of objects in the show
The Store (1961) staged in gallery show, then storefront on
NY's Lower East side, working class neighborhood
dozens of plaster sculpture to replicate mundane items
fashioned armature out of chicken wire, dropped wire with
cloth soaked in plaster (lime, water, sand)
paint dried plaster, poked fun at AbEx painting
objects typically lumpy and exaggerated in scale
frequently used humor to break down barriers between high
art and everyday life
in 1963, presented another innovation in 3d art, soft scultpures
exaggerate scale even further, emulate monumentality
experimented with sewn fabric, possibly after seeing work of
Yayoi Kusama (same studio as Oldenburg, fabric protrusions)
first three: hamburger, cake, ice cream cone
toilet (dangling from ceiling), drum set later on
played with motorizing, versions of inflatable ice pack through
collaboration initiated by Rauschenberg and Billy Kluver's
program to match artists with engineers for projects
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Floor Cake: Analysis
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sat directly on floor of gallery, decision to forego pedestals
heightened uncanny experience of object plucked from life
fabric treats sagged and barely held their shape
majority of sculptures in Western art were hard and durable,
from wood, stone, fired clay, bronze
Oldenburg upended expectations about sculpture
invested these works with a sense of parody and humor
ability to make the everyday strange, viewers look at
hamburgers, cake, ice cream differently afterwards
Oldenburg did not know how to sew, asked for help
from first wife Patty Mucha, a trained seamstress, from
sewing model from muslin to final work
second wife Coosje van Bruggen received credit as
collaborator, began working together in 1970s
omission of Mucha and Kusama demonstrate notion of male
"artistic genius", which dominated AbEx in 1960s
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