Oldenburg, Claes (Thure)

(born Jan. 28, 1929, Stockholm, Swed.) Swedish-born U.S. Pop art sculptor. The son of a consular official, he spent part of his early life in the U.S. He graduated from Yale University and attended the Art Institute of Chicago before doing freelance illustrations for magazines. He turned to sculpture after moving to New York City in 1956. Like other practitioners of Pop art, he chose banal subjects from consumer culture, but for “soft sculptures” such as Giant Clothespin (1976) and Giant Soft Shuttlecock (1995) he chose subjects with close human associations. His frequent use of soft, yielding vinyl gave the objects human, often sexual overtones.

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