Claes Oldenburg established his reputation as one of the preeminent Pop artists with his watershed environment The Store of 1961 where he sold surreal simulacra of food, clothes and other banalities and his subsequent 1962 exhibition at the Green Gallery where enormous ice cream cones and cake slices ruled the day. In 1963, Claes Oldenburg moved to moved to Los Angeles where, inspired by his foreign surroundings, he developed a new theme for his work- "The Home." This new theme informed his production for many years to come and rendered many of his best known subjects like Three Way Plug, Fag Ends and Toilet. The following five lots are a tour de force of one of Oldenburg's most fertile periods. A retrospective of sculptures in various states and drawing studies, this grouping gives profound insight into the artist's themes and motivations as well as his working methods.

Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929)

Study for a Three-Way Plug

Details

Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929)
Study for a Three-Way Plug
graphite and spray enamel on paper collage
23½ x 16¾ in. (59.7 x 42.5 cm.)
Executed in 1966.

Provenance

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York
Robert Fraser Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1968

Literature

G. Baro, Claes Oldenburg: Drawings and Prints, New York, 1969, p. 261, no. 269.

Exhibited

London, Robert Fraser Gallery, Claes Oldenburg, 1966, no. 17.
Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Claes Oldenburg: Skulpturer och teckningar, 1963-66, 1966, no. 35.
New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Oldenburg, March-April 1966, n.p., no. 37 (illustrated).
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Claes Oldenburg, 1969, no. 171. Rotterdam, Boymans-Van Beuningen, extended loan.

Study for a Three-Way Plug

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