Claes Oldenburg: Writing on the Side, 1956–1969 – Paperback

Edited by Achim Hochdörfer, Maartje Oldenburg, Barbara Schröder, and Ann Temkin

A central figure of Pop, installation art, and Happenings, Claes Oldenburg redefined art in the 1960s with his landmark environments The Street and The Store, his soft sculptures, and his proposals for colossal monuments. Since his arrival in New York in 1956, Oldenburg’s prolific production has always been accompanied by an extensive, daily practice of writing that reveals the conceptual complexity and diversity of his inventive oeuvre.

Comprising the artist’s key writings from the late 1950s and the 1960s, this volume makes available a wealth of previously unpublished material, including sections of the diary Oldenburg kept during these formative years, his notes, and facsimiles of sketches that show his abiding interest in the relationship between image and language. Together with statements, essays, scripts for Happenings, and poems, they provide fascinating insights into Oldenburg’s creative process. This compilation, the first to be dedicated entirely to Oldenburg’s writings, is a unique window into the formation and evolution of one of the most influential and groundbreaking contemporary artists, and is a lively personal account of the tumultuous 1960s. 438 pp.; 110 illus.