Happy birthday, Claes Oldenburg! 90, today! Here are some of his marvelous sculptures highlights from his wonderful “Ode to Possibilities“:

“I am for an art that embroils itself with the everyday crap and still comes out on top.”

“I am for an art that imitates the human, that is comic, if necessary, or violent, or whatever is necessary.”

“I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.”

“I am for all art that takes its form from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates and spits and drips, and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself.”

John Madera

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John Madera's fiction may be found in Conjunctions, Opium Magazine, The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing, and many other journals. His criticism may be found in American Book Review, Bookforum, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi: Review of Books, The Believer, The Brooklyn Rail, and many other venues. Recipient of an M.F.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University, John Madera lives in New York City, where he runs Rhizomatic and manages and edits Big Other.