- Art, Birthday, Nonfiction

Claes Oldenburg on Art and Life and Other “Possibilities”

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.”

6695.tif
Floor Burger, 1962

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

Soft Toilet 1966
Soft Toilet, 1966

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

cone
Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s Dropped Cone, 2001

“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.”

cupid
Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s Cupid’s Span, 2002

Leave a Reply