This Summer the MoMA in New York, NY presents Claes Oldenburg: The Street and The Store & Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing. These exhibits showcase important early pieces, as well as seminal works from the 1960s and ’70s by the American sculptor, draughtsman, printmaker and performance artist.
Claes Oldenburg: The Street and The Store & Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing. Photo by Elisha Sarti.
The Street features objects Oldenburg created as part of an immersive sculptural installation. This body of work was both inspired by and crafted from the debris the artist found around him living in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood at the beginning of the 1960s.
Claes Oldenburg, Street Chick (Hanging) 1960, from the exhibit Claes Oldenburg: The Street and The Store & Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing, Image courtesy MoMa.
In 1961, Oldenburg decided to turn his attention to The Store and began to fabricate objects and sculptures depicting consumer items and comestibles.
Claes Oldenburg: The Street and The Store & Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing. Photo by Elisha Sarti.
The second exhibit, The Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing, presents collections of ready made items from 5 and dime stores and found objects alongside artist created models of sculptures (prototypes) or altered objects – housed in mouse shape building. “The accumulations contained within the structures offer the viewer the rare privilege of watching the artist see. They permit the visual equivalent of eavesdropping: it is as if Oldenburg were allowing us to stand behind him and look over his shoulder as he perceives the world.” – Ann Temkin, curator of the exhibit.
Claes Oldenburg: The Street and The Store & Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing. Photo by Elisha Sarti.
Claes Oldenburg: The Street and The Store & Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing
14 April – 5 August 2013
The Museum of Modern Art
NYC
