Pop Art Silk Screen Print and Collage "Clothespin Brancusi's Kiss" Philadelphia by Claes Oldenburg, 1972

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Description

Abstract limited-edition silk-screen and collage artwork by the iconic Swedish-American Pop artist Claes Oldenburg (1929-2022), titled: "Proposal for a Colossal … Read more Abstract limited-edition silk-screen and collage artwork by the iconic Swedish-American Pop artist Claes Oldenburg (1929-2022), titled: "Proposal for a Colossal Structure in the Form of a Clothespin - Compared to Brancusi's "Kiss". Signed and dated 1972.

This screen print was a conceptual proposal for Oldenburg's acclaimed 45-foot-tall "Clothespin", monumental sculpture installed at Center Square in Philadelphia, it was limited to just 200 of which this is numbered 200.
The print juxtaposes the structural form of an everyday household clothespin with an embedded collage image of Constantin Brâncuși’s seminal modern sculpture, "The Kiss", in the bottom-left corner. Oldenburg noted that the two halves of the clothespin embracing via a metal spring closely mirrored the locked embrace of Brâncuși's stylized figures.
The artwork is hand-signed in pencil lower right and numbered lower left "200/200" and in the far lower left is Claes Oldenburg's blind-stamp and the date of 1972. Housed in the original brushed steel frame and under UV glass.
Condition is very good and is ready to hang on your wall.
At Sight
Height 29.50"
Width 21"

Artist Biography:
Claes Oldenburg (1929–2022) was a Swedish-born American pioneer of the Pop Art movement.
He is globally renowned for altering the scale, material, and meaning of everyday consumer products, transforming mundane objects into monumental public monuments and playful fine art.
Born in Stockholm to a Swedish diplomat, his family relocated to Chicago in 1936.
He studied literature and art history at Yale University (1946–1950) before training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1953.
He moved to New York in 1956 and became a pivotal figure in the experimental "Happenings" and performance art scenes of the NY Avant-garde. In 1961 he famously rented a Manhattan storefront to sell crudely painted plaster replicas of fast food, clothing, and everyday items, mimicking and satirizing consumer commercialism."Soft Sculptures": He revolutionized sculpture by stitching massive versions of domestic appliances, food items, and instruments out of flexible vinyl or canvas stuffed with kapok. Making hard objects soft infused them with comic, human, and surreal qualities.
Alongside his second wife and chief collaborator, Coosje van Bruggen, Oldenburg shifted focus toward public, massive steel installations across major global cities, like the Philadelphia Clothespin.

Claes Oldenburg’s artistic legacy is housed in elite global museum collections, prominent mega-galleries, and more than 40 colossal public site installations worldwide See less