Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Ave
800.944.8639
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Art
Claes Oldenburg: Early Sculpture, Drawings, and Happenings Films & Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen: The Music Room
- When
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May 7, 2009 – Sep 6, 2009
Wednesdays–Thursdays (11am–6pm)
Fridays (1–9pm)
Saturdays–Sundays (11am–6pm)
- Where
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- Price
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$15
- Links
With public-art dandy Claes Oldenburg, Pound's dictum seems especially true: all great art is born of the metropolis. The Whitney's Oldenburg expo includes his waggish soft sculptures – such as French Fries and Ketchup and Soft Toilet, names that double beautifully as terse self-descriptions – but its tidal pull is the continuous projection of a fata morgana: eight uber-rare reels of the artist's happenings in a metropolitan tic-tac-toe (Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York), among other cities. The survey also showcases the projects that Oldenburg made with his creative-cum-domestic partner Coosje van Bruggen, which include studious drawings of everday objects and a room full of musical variations on what started as a sculptural rejoinder to Vermeer.
