Clothespin Ten Foot (Primary Title)
Claes Oldenburg, American, born Sweden, 1929 - 2022 (Artist)
"The main reason for the colossal objects is the obvious one—to expand and intensify the presence of the vessel—the object." —Claes Oldenburg
Everyday objects often assume grand proportions in Oldenburg’s work. In the early 1960s, he was one ofthe original Pop artists using banal commercial items— food, clothes, household appliances—as subjects for his oversized sculptures. By enlarging them, changing their materials, and simplifying their forms, he made the familiar become strange.This work originated in 1967 on a plane above Chicago. Oldenburg held a clothespin up to the view from the window and imagined a colossal public sculpture in the urban landscape. In 1976, as his first permanent outdoor work on a large scale, heplaced a forty-five-foot-tall steel clothespin in downtown Philadelphia. The tenfoot- tall version here implies architectural scale but also alludes to a body, or perhaps two bodies embracing.
Sculpture: The Transition in Steel, Nassau County Museum of Fine Arts, Roslyn Harbor, NY, November 9, 1983 - January 24, 1984
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