USA
* January 28, 1929 Stockholm
† July 18, 2022 New York
Claes Oldenburg became known above all for his monumental sculptures in public spaces, in which he alienated everyday objects such as tools, ties or notepads by enlarging them multiple times. He achieved his breakthrough as an artist in 1969 with the work “Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks”, when students demonstrated against the Vietnam War with his sculpture. The object shows a lipstick on a tank-like base.
From 1976, Claes Oldenburg worked with the Dutch art historian Coosje van Bruggen, whom he married after one year. Later on, they produced a twelve-meter-high pickaxe for Documenta 7 in Kassel. The work “Spoonbridge and Cherry”, the sculptural pop art fountain in Minneapolis, is one of their best-known works.
