The Accidental Possibilities of the City

The Accidental Possibilities of the City
Author: Katherine Smith
Publisher: University of California Press
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2021-03-02
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0520305485

Claes Oldenburg’s commitment to familiar objects has shaped accounts of his career, but his associations with Pop art and postwar consumerism have overshadowed another crucial aspect of his work. In this revealing reassessment, Katherine Smith traces Oldenburg’s profound responses to shifting urban conditions, framing his enduring relationship with the city as a critical perspective and conceiving his art as urban theory. Smith argues that Oldenburg adapted lessons of context, gleaned from New York’s changing cityscape in the late 1950s, to large-scale objects and architectural plans. By examining disparate projects from New York to Los Angeles, she situates Oldenburg’s innovations in local geographies and national debates. In doing so, Smith illuminates patterns of urbanization through the important contributions of one of the leading artists in the United States.

Allan Kaprow and Claes Oldenburg

Allan Kaprow and Claes Oldenburg
Author: Robert E. Haywood
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Art and society
ISBN: 9780300222609

This new interpretation of the structure and meaning of the Happenings produced by Allan Kaprow (1927-2006) and Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929) in the late 1950s and 1960s sheds light on the context, theoretical framework, and working practice unique to this groundbreaking artistic form. Drawing on extensive archival research and including never-before-published drawings by Oldenburg, Robert E. Haywood describes the dialogue - at times contentious - between these two artists about the direction of the Happenings and modern art in general. Through a comprehensive analysis of these often overlooked works, it becomes clear that the Happenings--born in the midst of Cold War tensions and an increased uneasiness with the direction society was taking--challenged the traditional definitions of art in innovative new ways and were a critical component in the development of the art of the 20th century.

Printed Stuff

Printed Stuff
Author: Richard H. Axsom
Publisher: Hudson Hills
Total Pages: 468
Release: 1997
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN: 9781555951238

This magnificent volume documents the printmaking career of leading pop artist, influential creator of public monuments, and bravura draftsman Claes Oldenburg. Includes an important essay on Oldenburg's career and a catalogue of his entire printed oeuvre, from limited editions to ephemera. A must for scholars and collectors. 55 b&w illustrations, 52 duotones, 381 colorplates (including 2 gatefolds.

Raw Notes

Raw Notes
Author: Claes Oldenburg
Publisher: Halifax, N.S. : Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
Total Pages: 552
Release: 2005
Genre: Art
ISBN:

Claes Oldenburg, the artist who set new terms for sculpture in the 1960s, is best known for his soft sculptures and his giant monuments of ordinary objects. Because they have been less well documented, Oldenburg's performances have not been fully integrated into the critical discourse surrounding his work. In Raw Notes, Oldenburg has scrupulously collected all of the material relating to his performances. According to his specifications, the text in the book is typed rather then set and appears on only one side of the page. Examples of the original manuscript are reproduced in sixty-three script plates, including stage plans, scores, sketches for programs, and posters. More than two hundred annotations by the author expand the text. Raw Notes will be indispensable as a document of these important aspects of Oldenburg's work.

Bottle of Notes

Bottle of Notes
Author: Claes Oldenburg
Publisher: Lund Humphries Publishers Limited
Total Pages: 80
Release: 1997
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN:

Item discusses the commission by Middlesbrough Borough Council, creation and installation of the sculpture "Bottle of notes" in Central Gardens, Middlesbrough.

Claes Oldenburg's Theater of Vision

Claes Oldenburg's Theater of Vision
Author: Nadja Rottner
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2023-11-10
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1000998894

In four chronologically organized chapters, this study traces the conceptual dependence and deep connectivity among Claes Oldenburg’s poetry, sculpture, films, and performance art between 1956 and 1965. This research-intensive book argues that Oldenburg’s art relies on machine vision and other metaphors to visualize the structure and image content of human thought as an artistic problem. Anchored in new oral history interviews and extensive archival material, it brings together understudied visual and concrete poetry, experimental films, fifteen group performances (commonly referred to as happenings), and a close analysis of his well-known installations of The Street (1960) and The Store (1961–62), effectively setting in place a reexamination of Oldenburg’s pop art from the street, store, home, and cinema years. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, film studies, performance studies, literature, intermedia studies, and media theory.