Annotated Bibliography

Claes Oldenburg

Free Stamp

Steel and aluminium; painted with polyurethane enamel
28 ft. 10 in. x 26 ft. x 49 ft. (8.8 x 7.9 x 14.9 m)
Willard Park, Cleveland, Ohio
Commissioned December 1982 by SOHIO (later BP America, Inc.)
Installed August – October 1991 http://oldenburgvanbruggen.com/largescaleprojects/freestamp.htm

Annotated Bibliography

Heartley, Eleanor, “Art & the Quotidian Object”, in Art & Today (London: Phaidon, 2008)

In this chapter, Heartly introduces us to the influence of Duchamp’s ‘readymades’ on the art world and the concept of “anti-art” which I knew little about before reading this piece. She shows us the different interpretations the art world has made on Duchamp’s work and the consequences this has had on the art world in term of the everyday object as art. I found that the first half of the chapter was helpful in giving me a solid foundation on which to start my research. The second half of the chapter was less relevant as referred to specific artists and their practices; however I still found it useful as an overview of Duchamp’s influence.

Hayward Gallery, Claes Oldenburg: an Anthology, (New York: Abrams, 1995)

 A compilation of Oldenburg’s works, this book contains numerous essays about the different parts of Oldenburg’s life and art practice.  It provides a comprehensive biography on Oldenburg and has an overview and photographs of almost all the artworks he has created during his life. There are also excerpts from his diary and the detailed information, focusing especially the earlier years, was priceless for my understanding and research.  I found if anything, the amount of information was overwhelming and therefore it was hard to distinguish what information and excerpts were relevant to my research.  However, having this amount of information available to me was invaluable.

James, Jamie, POP ART, (London: Phaidon, 1996)

This book reviews the movement of Pop Art in Britain and the USA.  It is an introduction to the movement, explaining its history and prior movements, influential artists of the time and their relevant works. I found that it gave a great explanation of Pop Art.  The information was easy to understand and explained the movements before Pop Art and what influenced the artists practicing at the time. Unfortunately the two examples of Oldenburg’s work that were discussed weren’t ones that I had chosen to evaluate and therefore weren’t relevant to my presentation.  I only had a general understanding as to what Pop Art was about prior to reading this book and even though it is a very small portion of my presentation this book gave me the necessary background knowledge I needed to understand the movement.

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, http://oldenburgvanbruggen.com/index.htm [accessed March 13, 2012]

This is the official website of Oldenburg and van Bruggen’s collaborative work from 1977 until 2009. This website had individual biographies of both Oldenburg and van Bruggen. It listed all their collaborative works with measurements, dates, locations and a photograph. It also listed selected publications written both about and by Oldenburg and/or van Bruggen which was very useful. Occasionally there would be a brief explanation about the work but it would have been beneficial if there was a description from the artists about the insight into all their large-scale projects, rather than just a select few. Overall the website was minimal, but the information was concise and valuable to my research.