Obituaries
Swedish American sculptor Claes Oldenburg turned everyday objects into monuments. He was 93.
July 18, 2022
Entertainment & Arts
Art culture, not pop culture, was the subject of Claes Oldenburg’s often witty sculptures.
“Claes Oldenburg: Drawings, 1959-1977” and “Claes Oldenburg With Coosje van Bruggen: Drawings, 1992-1998”: Claes Oldenburg’s scrappy love of everyday stuff celebrates the magical mysteries of little lives lived in big cities, where homey comforts disappear in a sea of anonymity, desperation lurks in the shadows and otherwise forgettable incidents are loaded with pathos that never makes the headlines.
Aug. 5, 2004
Claes Oldenburg’s drawings of everyday objects in unlikely settings sometimes become monumental works of Pop art.
June 16, 2004
American pop art sculptor Claes Oldenburg has won the $100,000 Wolf Prize in the Arts, the Israel-based Wolf Foundation announced today.
March 6, 1989
Works include a dropped ice cream cone in Germany; a bow and arrow in San Francisco; a broom and dustpan in Denver, ‘Toppling Ladder with Spilling Paint’ in downtown L.A. and binoculars in Venice.
Jan. 13, 2009
Coosje van Bruggen dies at 66; art historian made sculptures with husband Claes Oldenburg
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Collectors Committee raised a record-breaking $6.4 million and added five artworks and two collections to LACMA’s permanent collection over the weekend.
April 19, 2016
“It needs something up there, maybe an ironing board--or try a chair,” said Claes Oldenburg to an assistant who scrambled up a ladder and stuffed foam-rubber facsimiles of household goods under ropes wrapped around a giant, paint-spattered sphere.
Jan. 11, 1988
‘I don’t even notice any more when people categorize me as a Pop artist,” says Claes Oldenburg, who believes that his work encompasses a lot more than that.
July 2, 1995