Many of the most famous fine artists of the 20th century aspired to be commercial artists. Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Willem deKooning, Roy Lichtenstein, Ad Reinhardt and yes, Claes Oldenburg (who passed away yesterday at the age of 93) all tried to make it as commercial artists but many lacked the skill or talent.
Unlike several of his famous peers, Oldenburg really knew how to draw.
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| Ironing board monument for the lower east side of New York |
His drawings are what I'd like to celebrate with you today.
As a young boy in Chicago, Oldenburg was thrilled by his mother's clipping of images from American magazines. After studying art at Yale, he found work drawing boll weevils for pesticide ads. He eventually moved from illustration to pop art, and then became internationally famous for his monumental sculptures and proposed public works. He proposed giant sculptures of unlikely subjects such as ironing boards, smoke, lipstick, and slices of pie. But I agree with art professor David Pagel who observed that "More often than not, [Oldenburg's] preposterous proposals were primarily great excuses to make great drawings."
For example, I love this drawing of immense dancers around a pile of other dancers:
Despite their bulk, the dancers are light on their feet. They remind me of the prancing hippos in Fantasia:
I salute any artist who can draw landscapes this well from the shoulder:
At another time, Oldenburg did a series of drawings where he identified little snatches of design and brought them to our attention by isolating them within wide margins.
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| Man carrying a large parcel |
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| legs |
His drawings were bold, creative, smart and funny. In the late '50s he experimented with healthy doses of whimsy and irrationality:
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| moon bop |
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| ya bla with car |
Even with these child-like drawings he never lost his great sense of design.
I have mixed feelings about some of Oldenburg's later works and sculptures but his excellent drawings are a fine legacy.
