You would think after being in this class for an entire semester, random or strange pieces of art shouldn’t surprise me so much. But once again, our textbook has presented me with something that definitely took me off guard…
Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculptor associated with the pop art movement who made sculptures of everyday ordinary objects. This would be very boring, except for the fact that the objects are ten, sometimes even twenty times their normal size. The sculpture that caught my in the book is his sculpture of a giant clothespin, located in Central Square in Philadelphia.
My first reaction to this art was why would someone do something ridiculous like sculpt a giant clothespin, but then I thought why not? It’s definitely not the most ridiculous thing we’ve seen at this point, and kudos to Oldenburg for just having fun with his talent. He was able to break out of the mindset that art should contain serious subject matter or invoke profound thoughts.
Another example of his work is the Dropped Cone on top of a shopping center in Cologne, Germany. One thing you have to give him credit for is getting people’s attention. It would be pretty much impossible to miss a giant, dripping ice cream cone on top of a building!
A third sculpture of Oldenburg is titled Spoonbridge and Cherry.
I’m not sure what it is about his sculptures, but I’m definitely a fan. Just looking at them reminds you to not take life so seriously and just enjoy the little (or not so little…) things in life!
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