Claes Oldenburg

Like any type of art form, the perspective of a piece changes drastically when seen in person. I have been fortunate enough to see (and climb on) a couple of originals by the man. When seen in photographs, sometimes his work may be thought of as cute or even cliche, but when seated atop a 1,200lb cherry, 24 feet of the ground, cute is the last thought in my mind.

Although some of Oldenburgs work is a bit too 'pop' for me, i do admire the aspect in his use of the every day. Whether its a10 ton clothes pin, or a flashlight the size of a lighthouse, this man has a way of forcing us to look at common objects in a new light.

Outside of his large scale public displays, Oldenburg also has a series of 'soft' art that i find fascinating. The most appealing to me is his soft bath tub. Here, he has taken a common household piece, one that has a very general, defined shape and texture, and defied them both.

Distort my reality please.

Journal #4 Kayla Rodriguez

Claes Oldenburg was born in 1929 in Stockholm, and moved to the United States with his family when he was still a young boy. He attended Yale University as well as the Art Institute of Chicago. When he was all done with his schooling he moved to New York City where he met various artists whose “theatrically based art posed an alternative to the prevailing influence of Abstract Expressionist painting.”
Claes Oldenburg later met write Coosje van Bruggen and together they created many large-scale projects outdoors all around the United States and Europe. This is one example of a piece they developed together outside of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, it is called “Giant Soft Shuttlecock,” and it was made in 1994.
In the majority, if not all, of Claes Oldenburg’s work both male and female forms are expressed, along with eros, death, power, and desire themes. An example of another piece Oldenburg created expressing these themes was that of the Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar tracks made in 1979. This piece clearly expresses man and woman, desire and death, and so much more.
Claes Oldenburg’s works ranged from abstract human beings to the most common things. He didn’t really limit himself to any particular, and that is what makes him so interesting to me.



http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/bio/?artist_name=Claes%20Oldenburg

http://artnetweb.com/oldenburg/scale.html

http://artnetweb.com/oldenburg/bio.html

Journal Assignment #4

Claes Oldenburg:

He was originally from Sweden but his art became extremely popular

Claes moved to the United States from Sweden and attended Yale Unin the United States because of its originality and pop art type of “soft sculpture”. He is well known for his giant sculptures based off real life objects. I was intrigued by a specific sculpture of a stamp that said FREE on it. Apparently there are many peop

le that are huge fans of this piece of Claes’s.

iversity but soon left and transferred to the Art Institute of Chicago.

I found the picture of the spoon and cherry intriguing because of the enormity and the creativity. I have literally never seen a spoon that size. It is almost like he is trying to break some guinness world records with the si

zes of his sculptures.

The bitten apple is appealing to me because of the texture of it and what it seems to be made of what looks like p

aper machet. I think it is just random that he thought to make a dried up bitten apple.

The bike wheel is interesting because it see

ms to be coming out of the ground. It looks like an old wheel that has been overgrown with grass. It almost looks like its made to be a childrens playtoy.

Journal Assignment #3

Bowls:

Looking at the four artists, Warren Mckenzie, Shoji

Hamada, Linda Arbuckle, and Suze Lindsay, they each have a different approach to what they like to create.

Warren McKenzie:

His main objective was to keep his pots as low a price as possible so they would be more accessible to the public. Many of his pots are currently in museums! His ultimate goal he stated was to make everyday pots. Many of his pots are bland colors with a more unfi

nished look.

Many of his pots have impurities that make them seem more artistic. He puts grooves into the sides as well as thin frames on his bowls.

Shoji Hamada:

His bowls are very simplistic. He uses the “corners” of the bowl when painting. He uses the space on his bowls evenly when panting. They are also mostly the same shape that I saw when I googled him. He has shallow bowls with a thicker rim. His bowls are more aimed toward what they call “drinking bowls” instead of soup or cereal bowls.

Suze Lindsay:

Suze’s ceramics are very contemporary and designy. She uses the whole space for her artwork on it; she also has several pieces where she purposely puts cracks into her bowls. She is extremely creative and makes her pieces with a lot of the same color and patterns.

Linda Arbuckle:

Linda seems to be greatly interested in plants on her bowls. She paints fruits and flowers and leaves on everything. The color pallet she uses is filled with yellows, greens, reds, purples and oranges. She does not seem to stray much from that. Her bowls are multi purpose and could be easily used in an every

day setting!!

#4 Journal entry on Clause Oldenburg by Haemi Jung.

Claes Oldenburg was born in 1929 and he is a Swedish sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects. He grew up and studied in Chicago. He made lots of large scale sculptures of worldly objects elicited public ridicule before being embraced as whimsical, insightful, and fun additions to public outdoor art. Whenever we saw his works, we are going to keep our eyes on that. It is definitely draw people’s attention. 

He got a lot of beautiful works and I choose four of his work which is my favorite.

Firstly, it is Bat-column which is giant base ball bat. It is next to Harold Washington Social Security Center in Chicago. It is not colorful than other works but it still keep my eyes. It has some detail on baseball bat. 

Secondly, it is Stake Hitch in Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX. It faceted geometric shape was developed for the "stake" freely based on a railroad spike, a tent peg or animal tether, made of aluminum roughened with a coating of epoxy. The "rope", which was likened to a tornado, was built up of ventilation ducts covered with foam "strands" sprayed with resin and chopped fiberglass finished in colorful enamels. The rope part looks real rope to me.  

 Next, it is Torn Notebook in University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska. It appears as if it had been tossed onto the lawn that runs along the border between the campus and the city. Barely touching the ground, the sculpture seems to rise like a huge bird spreading its wings. It looks like real notebook and it also feels like goes to somewhere by wind. It is quite funny work. 

 

Lastly, it is Spring in Cheonggyecheon Stream, Seoul, South Korea. I saw it before when I walked in Cheonggyecheon last year. It looks really pretty especially at night. When I found out it looks like sea-shell, I really liked it.

Journal Entry #4: Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg is an artist innovator, and one of the best of all time. Taking everyday items that fit in the palm of your hand, or even smaller, and turning them into huge sculptures the size of giants. Originally born in Stockholm Sweden, Claes moved to the United States in 1936, when his father moved to Chicago. He also attended Yale, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

One of the most famous pieces Claes has made woule be the giant lipstick on caterpillar tracks. This gives the viewer a little insight in the mind of the artist, how he sees the world around him and the context in which he sees it.

Another great artwork would be the giant paperclip that he made. When he takes the small objects and blows them up this lets the mind wander and think outside the box on objects that are seen everyday, but are rarely thought about in depth. This art gives people a moment to really look and notice something that they never really took the time to look at in the first place. The art also lets people look and learn details about the object they never noticed before.

My personal favorite piece that he made would be the giant Binoculars that are outside what looks like a museum, or exhibit. Taking the object that is most used in the worlds most popular sport, and making in large in the sense of its use and popularity. That sport would be Bird Watching, one of my favorite activities.

Claes or Claus by Joe Savidge

 Whatever city that decides to let Claes install art is a city with a sense of humor.  I wonder if there are ice cream drips in the section of the photo we cannot see.  Claes found a good job for himself.  Who else can say that they make a living off of upside down ice cream?

Claes did meet resistance with this piece he erected outside a Kansas City art museum.  He incorporated a previous feather idea into the set of shuttlecocks littered about the grounds, which he realized upon an aerial view resembled a grassy tennis court.  There is a shuttlecock in the back left of this picture.  Also, on the other side of the museum is a shuttlecock that must've been hit quite hard.  After a fair amount of hoopla, Claes was able to go through with the project, without incident, and the museum offered art history classes  to people educate the opposition.

Industry has been bent in this work, whose shape actually matches the water fountain in the background.  This makes me think of industry-meets-nature, episode 7, who will win?  I think the piece to be optically pleasing and probably climbable.  Reminds me of some of the random metal objects Central has around its campus.

http://www.oldenburgvanbruggen.com/   this is a good website to look at Claes' art with his partner or wife or muse or whoever she was.  There are his artist statements on the work he's created.  This work is in the Netherlands.  What a kooky piece of art.  The yellow was chosen to brighten up the area's consistently gloomy weather.  What happens when an individual in the depths of a hallucinatory drug binge walk across Claes' art?  I'm too frightened to extrapolate.

J. Entry #4

CLAES OLDENGURN!

Born in Switzerland in 1929, his family moved to Chigago and Oldengburg attended the Latin School of Chicago. Later he attended Yale University from 1946 to 1950. He is well known for his large sculptures. He takes an everyday object and makes it big enough that his art is mostly displayed outdoors. His wife and him do many collaberatios together including Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillr Tracks.




***Blog site is having trouble with pictures apperently. It is not letting me post any of them...

Journal entry 4 (Michaela)

CLAES OLDENBURG

Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculpter who best is known for his large scale renditions of everyday objects. He took classes at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, after this is worked on his sculpting part time and also held a job as a reporter. In 1953 Claes Oldenburg opened his own studio and became a United States citizen. Oldenburg did a lot of work in conjunction with his late wife, Coosje Van Bruggen. Many of his works of art are placed outdoors for decoration because they are so large.

Claes Oldenburg Post #4

Claes Oldenburg

Pop art in extreme Scale

Claes Oldenburg is a man who is fascinated with taking ordinary objects, and turning them into extraordinary objects. Whether doing so in such large scale it takes your breath away, or in a different type of material. Such as his soft object series. He really makes you look at a familiar object in a different light, and be affected by it. Although I have never had the oportunity to see one of his works in person, the photos of the objects he's created are mind blowing anyway.

Soft Viola is an example, I would have never imagined seeing an insturment that I am familliar with in this way with this medium. It almost looks like its falling apart, the strings in dissarray and the F-holes falling to the side, but in a way it almost seems to be musically active and alive.

Another work of his that fascinates me is his work "Safety Pin" housed in the De Young Museum in San Fransisco. This work is so obsurdly out of proportion to what we would normally percieve a safety pin to be, that we forget that its 54 Feet tall and extremely humorous to look at. Its amazing how accurate his works are to appearing like something they arent. The detail in the coil and the blue latch area are evidence of this.

Another fun work is his Soft work inspired by the 60's, with this fun example of a VW Beetle. As you can see in this picture, He's added a few elements such as the metal bumper, hubcaps, mirror's and steering wheel.

All in all Claes Oldenburgs work is humorous, fun, and fascinating. I can only imagine the amount of time and planning that went into each and every work of art that holds his name.

Journal Entry #4

Claes Oldenburg is a man of many tastes when it comes to sculptures. Born in Switzerland and moved to the states, this man made something of himself and his artwork which allows him to be well known along with his pieces. He likes to enlarge everyday objects that we may use or see throughout the day. His pieces are viewed around the world in many different areas commonly outdoors due to the size of his sculptures. However, he doesn't just limit himself to sculpting; he paints, draws, works with metal and so much more. He is a really fun artist, who isn't afraid to take risks.

His piece shown to left is my favorite. I like creativity and how its speaks to me. FREE; could mean a lot of different things. It's such an open ended message, free spirit, free person, free life. FREE.

The Bottle of Notes is another favorite of mine, it makes me think of the letter in a bottle concept; therefore it makes me think of love letter in a bottle and that someone is longing for that message.

The hamburger is an all American food. Maybe he was hungry? Or maybe he was trying to show something else? The pickle is on top, why? Thing is it doesn't have to make sense. :)

Journal Entry #3

Bowls:

Looking at the four artists, Warren Mckenzie, Shoji Hamada, Linda Arbuckle, and Suze Lindsay, they each have a different approach to what they like to create.

Warren Mckenzie:

Mckenzie's pieces are fairly attractive in my point of view. I also, noticed

that his bottoms on most of his pieces are just smaller in

diameter to piece itself and the just straight down. For example this vase you can see how different the bottom is compare to the rest of the vase or elongated bowl.

Shoji Hamada:

Hamada's pieces are different because I see a lot of cubism in them. She

likes the flat edges on a rounded piece. The bottoms of her pieces are larger toward the center of

the piece and narrow towards the surface of a table or whatever she displays it on. For example you can see the cubism and bottom on this piece.

Linda Arbuckle:

Arbuckle's pieces are very bright and colorful. Also, it appears she has many different styles when it comes to her pieces, however the bottoms all look a like. They have the shorter, rounded bottoms that flare out just a bit. For example this bowl she has created you its hard to tell where the bottom begins but looking towards the left of the picture you see that rounded curvature just before the bottom.

Suze Lindsay: (was not presented in any of the blogs listed on the syllabus, found information else where.) Lindsay's pieces are quiet different, she doesn't just focus on bowls or plates, or something specific. It looks like she prefers to test the waters and try many different pieces. For example some pieces don't have defiant bottoms, they just flow into the piece, but if they do have a bottom its smaller than the rest of the piece like on this bowl.

journal # 4 claes

Who is Claes Oldenburg? Claes was born the son of a consular official in Sweden. He graduated from Yale University and then went to the Art Institute of Chicago and from there he went on to do freelance illustrations for magazines. He moved to New York in the 50's got way into sculpture... giant sculptures. Like a lot of other pop artists he uses simple subject matter and consumer culture... objects we buy, and use, and see around our homes every day. He creates these giant sculptures of everyday objects out of vinyl... They are shiny and some people even call them "sexual," but they say that about every artist.
here are only a few of his famous large sculptures and also some of his smaller ones as well.