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Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg (1929–2022) transformed familiar objects through exaggerated scale, unexpected materials and playful changes of context. His career encompassed Pop Art, soft sculpture, performances and monumental public works. From the 1970s he collaborated extensively with Coosje van Bruggen, whose co-authorship is essential to the outdoor projects documented here. Their Split Button was installed outside the University of Pennsylvania’s Van Pelt Library in 1981. Walker Art Center dates Spoonbridge and Cherry to 1985–1988, encompassing development and realization for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Denver Art Museum records their Big Sweep in 2006 beside its Hamilton Building. This individual historical profile preserves the shared credits and provides civic-scale reference projects; it does not describe a current studio or offer new commissions by the deceased artist.

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Institutional artist reference

Image from the artist / work source for Claes Oldenburg
Image: commons.wikimedia.org ↗Copyright holder (as credited at source)Copyright status (as credited at source)Photograph by Bert Verhoeff / Anefo, Nationaal Archief, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ (as credited at source)

At a glance

Practice
public sculpture, monumental sculpture, installation, Pop Art
Based in
Not documented
Profile
individual
Project participation
Not documented; confirm with the artist, studio or estate.

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Documented disciplines include public sculpture, monumental sculpture, installation, Pop Art.

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