Claes Oldenburg (1929)

Text and images / Chen Chi-Hsiang Claes Oldenburg (1929): His artistic attempts concern the effects of display; his works waver between sculpture and painting. From these hamburgers to crushed bathtubs or toilets, and all sorts of household items are included. However, these objects are sometimes replica models stuffed with cotton inside, or if not present, they become soft sculptures, or when made from cardboard, they become hard model sculptures with added color. Oldenburg said: "I adopt a very naive act of imitation, not because I lack imagination or because I want to say something about daily life. The things I imitate fall into two categories: one, objects; two, manufactured objects, such as symbols, which were not created to be {artistic}. Yet they naturally contain a potent contemporary magic, and I attempt to further promote this through my own naive ideas. This is not hypocritical or superficial. By 'further,' I mean I want to endow them with greater power and examine their relevance more carefully. I do not wish to make them {artistic}, a point we must understand (which aligns closely with certain views of Minimalism). I imitate these things so that people can become accustomed to recognizing the capacity of objects. My work has an educational goal."