Claes Oldenburg

"I try to look at the things as if I had never seen them before, as if I were a Martian and didn't know what they were for, had no idea of the function of the things, was only interested in the structure of it. The minute you give a name to a thing, you cloud or you hide the innocent vision." 

Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg’s status as a towering figure in Pop art who ranks alongside icons like Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol has been repeatedly reinforced in recent years. His audacious, witty, and profound depictions of everyday objects have earned him a reputation as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. A former journalist and illustrator, Oldenburg became fascinated by Pop’s playful approach to art that contrasted so strongly with the machismo of Abstract Expressionism. Where artists like Warhol and Lichtenstein took popular media as their inspiration, however, Oldenburg found his muse in diner food, children’s toys, and other quotidian comforts.

Reminiscent of his early seminal fabric sculptures of objects like sandwiches, clothespins, and plugs from the 1960s, which accentuated their benign nature and their role in consumer culture, Calico Bunny from 1987 reimagines an ordinary child’s toy. While its huggable shape and material make it ostensibly cuddly, its under-stuffed body, spattered fabric, and heavy, protruding black eyes render it slightly uncanny.