My rule was not to paint things as they were. When I asked Claes Oldenburg where he got his ideas, he said he made them all up as a child. The privileged child of a Swedish diplomat, as a boy he invented a fantasy country called Neubern over which he reigned, designing the urban plan and all its facilities. His exceptional natural talent for drawing immediately brought him attention, but he wanted to do more than draw: He wanted to change the history of art. And he did because not only was he an artist, he was a revolutionary personality.
Oldenburg is one of those rare polymaths who can express themselves in many forms. He rejected abstract art as conventional and boring and invented a variety of new forms, including installations and the giant soft sculptures that first brought him fame as a pop artistβa term that is too narrow to encompass the range of his activities, from architecture to film. He came up with the radical idea that sculpture was not necessarily hard, like bronze or steel, but could be soft, like cloth or vinyl.
The notion came to him when he designed props for his Happenings and environments, which were elaborate sets. The first soft sculptures, in the early s, were giant painted canvas cakes and burgers. These evolved into far more sophisticated household objects, such as giant fans and light switches. Hailed as an innovation that changed the very definition of the medium, the soft sculptures had no fixed or permanent form.
Their configurations were provisional and could be changed at any time, suggesting infinite possible permutations. They were not only inventive as new forms done in new materialsβwomen were wearing vinyl mini dresses at the timeβthey were witty and provocative. Oldenburg, at age 86, draws constantly, doodling even when in conversation. Students saw the commissioned drawings he was making of a tanklike sculpture and paid to have it fabricated, placing it in front of a campus war memorial in a dramatic confrontation with the authorities.
The action proved that his ideas could be realized as public sculptures, and Oldenburg began to receive commissions from cities and museums.
