CLAES OLDENBURG | STUDY FOR A SOFT SCULPTURE IN THE FORM OF A DRAINPIPE

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York

The Collection of Dr. and Mrs. William C. Levin, Galveston

Coleman Bancroft, New York

William Louis-Dreyfus, Mount Kisco, New York (acquired from the above in 2010)

The William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation (gift of the above in 2015)

New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, An Exhibition of New Works by Claes Oldenburg, April - May 1967

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Claes Oldenburg, September - November 1969

Pasadena Art Museum, Claes Oldenburg: Object into Monument, December 1971 - February 1972

Claes Oldenburg, known for his large scale installations and soft sculptures, often chose objects such as fans, phones, and other household items as well as mundane objects from everyday life as his subject. His ideas were conceived through a series of sketches, often loose and gestural and some of which included notes and large text. Many of Oldenburg’s works were made in collaboration with his wife, Coosje van Bruggen. 

“With Claes Oldenburg the act of drawing seems wholly natural, a reflex to his inner life and the world about him. Of course, he draws also quite deliberatively, in preparation for his work in sculpture; but his preoccupation with drawing- or, rather, the ways in which drawing serves his preoccupations- goes well beyond this practical necessity”

Gene Baro, Claes Oldenburg: Drawings and Prints, London 1969, p.11