Claes Oldenburg died yesterday at his home/studio in New York.
On his work:
As he focused more and more on sculpture, he began increasing the scale of his work, taking as his starting point ordinary objects like hamburgers, ice cream cones and household appliances and then enlarging them to unfamiliar, often imposing dimensions.
One of his most famous installations, erected in 1976 — the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence — is “Clothespin,” a 45-foot-high, 10-ton black steel sculpture of precisely what the title indicates, complete with a metal spring that appropriately evokes the number 76. The work stands in stark contrast to conventional public sculpture, which Mr. Oldenburg, impersonating a municipal official, said was supposed to involve “bulls and Greeks and lots of nekkid broads.”
I was just in DC and snapped this image of his Typewriter Eraser at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. I like tracking down his public sculpture when visiting new cities, like a nerdy little treasure hunt. RIP.