The Store by Claes Oldenburg
Plug by Claes Oldenburg
Clothespin by Claes Oldenburg
Profiterole by Claes Oldenburg
Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks by Claes Oldenburg
Soft Drainpipe - Blue (Cool) Version by Claes Oldenburg
Typewriter Eraser by Claes Oldenburg
Giant Three-Way Plug by Claes Oldenburg
Geometric Mouse - Scale C by Claes Oldenburg
Soft Drainpipe - Red (Hot) Version by Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg

1929–2022 · Swedish

Oldenburg made a giant clothespin and put it in a Philadelphia plaza. Before that he made a giant lipstick and put it at Yale. Before that he made a floor full of oversized plaster food (hamburgers, ice cream cones, slices of pie) and exhibited it in a rented shop on the Lower East Side called The Store (1961). Everything he touched got bigger and softer. Hard objects became flabby. Small objects became monumental. The logic was consistent.

Key facts

Lived
1929–2022, Swedish
Movement
Works held in
19 museums[1]

Biography

He was born in Stockholm, grew up in Chicago (his father was a Swedish diplomat), and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and Yale. He moved to New York in 1956 and fell in with the Happenings crowd: Allan Kaprow, Jim Dine, Red Grooms. His early performances involved selling art in a shop, which was either commerce or anti-commerce depending on your reading.

The soft sculptures, made from vinyl and canvas stuffed with foam or kapok, turned hard manufactured objects into drooping, sagging forms. A soft typewriter. A soft toilet. A soft drum set. They are funny and slightly disturbing: consumer goods losing their structural integrity, going limp.

From the 1970s onwards he worked with his wife and collaborator Coosje van Bruggen on the large-scale public sculptures: Spoonbridge and Cherry in Minneapolis, Shuttlecocks at the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Dropped Cone in Cologne (an ice cream cone upside-down on a building). The projects are playful, technically demanding, and expensive. He died in 2022, at ninety-three.

Timeline

  1. 1962Painted "Two Cheeseburgers, with Everything (Dual Hamburgers)".
  2. 1969Painted "Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks".
  3. 1975Painted "Geometric Mouse, Scale A".
  4. 1988Painted "Spoonbridge and Cherry (collaboration with van Bruggen)".
  5. 1999Painted "Typewriter Eraser, Scale X (collaboration with van Bruggen)".
  6. 2001Painted "Dropped Cone (collaboration with van Bruggen)".

Notable Works

Tap to view larger.

Where to See Claes Oldenburg

3 museums worldwide.

Plan your visit →

  • National Gallery of Art

    Washington, D.C., United States

    178 works
    Museum detailsMap

  • Allen Memorial Art Museum

    Ohio, United States

    1 works
    Museum detailsMap

  • Philadelphia Museum of Art

    Philadelphia, United States

    1 works
    Museum detailsMap

Related Artists

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James Rosenquist

1934–2017 · American

Ed Ruscha

Ed Ruscha

1937–present · American

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

1928–1987 · American

Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein

1923–1997 · American

Allan D'Arcangelo

Allan D'Arcangelo

1930–1998 · American

Victor Vasarely

Victor Vasarely

1906–1997 · French

Plan your visit to see Claes Oldenburg →

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Claes oldenburg art movement?
    Claes Oldenburg was involved with Happenings, an early form of performance art, from 1959 to 1965.
  • How did claes oldenburg die?
    Claes Oldenburg died in 2022 at the age of 93.
  • Is claes oldenburg still alive?
    No, Claes Oldenburg died in 2022.
  • Was claes oldenburg a pop artist?
    Claes Oldenburg's work went beyond the limits one would ordinarily assign to the Pop sensibility, using irony to take on the full weight of the American commonplace.
  • What is claes oldenburg best known for?
    Claes Oldenburg is best known for developing three-dimensional, large-scale blowups of familiar objects.
  • When did claes oldenburg start making art?
    Claes Oldenburg began producing sculptural objects of cloth, plaster, papier mâché, and paint in the late 1950s after moving to New York and becoming involved in Happenings and other nontraditional art forms.
  • Who was claes oldenburg inspired by?
    Claes Oldenburg was caught up in the excitement around Happenings and other nontraditional forms of art making.
  • Why did claes oldenburg become an artist?
    Claes Oldenburg became an artist after being caught up in the excitement around Happenings and other nontraditional art forms in New York during the late 1950s. He then began producing sculptural objects.
  • Why did claes oldenburg make his sculptures?
    Claes Oldenburg began producing sculptural objects of cloth, plaster, papier mâché, and paint after becoming caught up in the excitement around Happenings and other nontraditional forms of art making in New York during the late 1950s. His breakthrough came at this time.
  • Is claes oldenburg dead?
    Claes Oldenburg died in 2022, at ninety-three.
  • When did claes oldenburg move to america?
    Claes Oldenburg moved to America as a child, settling in Chicago in 1936.
  • Where did claes oldenburg live?
    Claes Oldenburg lived in the United States and Norway before settling in Chicago in 1936. Later, he lived in New York.

Sources

Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Claes Oldenburg.

  1. [1] museum Buffalo AKG Art Museum Used for: museum holdings.
  2. [2] museum Allen Memorial Art Museum Used for: museum holdings.
  3. [3] museum Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Used for: museum holdings.
  4. [4] museum Cleveland Museum of Art Used for: museum holdings.
  5. [5] museum Whitney Museum of American Art Used for: museum holdings.
  6. [6] museum Denver Art Museum Used for: museum holdings.
  7. [7] book Jed Perl, Art in America 1945-1970 Used for: biography.
  8. [8] book guggenheim-popicons00gugg Used for: biography.

Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-05-31. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.

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