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Claes Oldenburg, born Sweden 1929, and Coosje van Bruggen, born Netherlands 1942, both active in the US
Apple Core Cast aluminum coated with resin and painted with polyurethane enamel 300 x 200 x 200 cm Gift of the Morton and Barbara Mandel Fund, Mandel Associated Foundations, Cleveland, to American Friends of the Israel Museum © The artists Accession number: B93.0617 |
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One of the leading figures of American Pop art and an early pioneer of environmental and installation art, Oldenburg reveals in his works the hidden potential of everyday objects, making them tangible, soft, and humorous. Oversized foodstuffs such as an ice cream cone or baked potato, often rendered in a somewhat unpredictable way, are frequent elements in his vocabulary. Since 1976, Oldenburg has collaborated with Coosje van Bruggen. Together, they have executed more than forty large-scale projects, which have been installed in various outdoor locations throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States.
The perishability and vulnerability of the decaying apple core evinces Oldenburg's consistent preoccupation with the process of decline and death. It is also the residue of a natural ("perfect") form altered ("spoiled") by human intervention. The existential imperative of growth and decomposition - its poignancy once heightened by the lushness of vanitas pictures, with a worm or insect accentuating the moral |
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