Claes Oldenburg was born in 1929 in Stockholm but grew up in Chicago where his father was the Swedish Counsul. He matriculated at Yale University and in the mid-1950's moved to New York, where he began making sculptures in plaster and creating and participating in happenings.
Source: Bulletin, September-October 1973.
Oldenburg’s innovative approach to sculpture stemmed from his fascination with consumer culture. As an immigrant to the United States, he became fascinated with how large and bright things were in mid-twentieth-century America, from the cities to the cars and even the food. He was inspired to create enlarged versions of ordinary objects, made from paper, cardboard, or imitation leather like this one, turning them into “soft” sculptures that challenged traditional ideas about how art should look and stand in the gallery. Oldenburg’s giant, witty objects became sought after public sculpture, appearing in cities all over the world. Des Moines is the home of two of Oldenburg’s monumental sculptures: Crusoe’s Umbrella, 1979, in Cowles Commons, and Plantoir, 2001, an oversize garden trowel, on the grounds of Meredith Corporation.
July 22, 2020
Exhibition History"200 Years of American Sculpture," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Mar. 1 - Sept. 26, 1976
"Oldenburg: Six Themes," Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Apr. 6 - May 25, 1975 (traveling exhibition - BLUE PLUG shown at the Walker Art Center only)
"Claes Oldenburg: Object into Monument," Pasadena Art Museum, CA, Dec. 7, 1971- Feb. 6, 1972; (Circulated to: Berkeley, University Art Museum, University of California, Feb. 28 - Apr. 9, 1972; Kansas City, Missouri, Nelson Gallery - Atkins Museum, May 11- June 18, 1972; Fort Worth, Texas, Fort Worth Art Center Museum, July 13- Aug. 20, 1972; Des Moines Art Center, Sept. 18- Oct. 29, 1972; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, Nov.8- Dec.; Chicago Art Institute, Illinois, Jan. 17 - Feb. 25, 1973)
"You Start Here," Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, September 23, 2005 - February 27, 2006
"The Ordinary Must Not Be Dull: Claes Oldenburg's Soft Sculptures." Pulitzer, St. Louis, MO, July 29 - October 15, 2016
Published ReferencesNATHAN EMORY COFFIN COLLECTION, a portfolio of fifty selections from the collection, published by the Des Moines Art Center to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the death of Nathan Emory Coffin, 1981, b/w ill.
Kathleen Sinclair Wood, CLUES TO AMERICAN SCULPTURE, Starrhill Press, Washington, D.C., 1990, b/w ill. p.48
"200 Years of American Sculpture," David R. Godine in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1976, ref. p.208, checklist no.183, p.344, color ill. pl. no.52, p.209
AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.215, color ill. pp.214 & 215
DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. pp.166, 168 & 169, b/w ill. pl.105, p.167
Thomas Buser, EXPERIENCING ART AROUND US, West Publishing Company, St. Paul, MN, 1995, color ill. p.535
Benjamin Forgey, "Two Centuries of U. S. Sculpture All In One Place," SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, Vol.7, No.6, Sept. 1976, color ill. p.59
"Oldenburg: Six Themes," Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1975, exh. cat. ref. no.99, ill. p.20, detail ill. p.21
Joshua C. Taylor, THE FINE ARTS IN AMERICA, University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London, 1979, ill. p.216
DES MOINES REGISTER, Sept. 20, 1972, ill. p.9
"Dwiescie lat mararstwa amerykanskiego," Muzeum Narodwe, Warsaw, 1976, exh. cat. ill. (Blue Plug not in exhibition)
Images (1)
Audio (1)
Claes Oldenburg (American, born Sweden, born 1929)
Three-Way Plug, Scale A (Soft), Protoype in Blue, 1971
Run Time: 2:43
Recorded by Jim Demetrion, former Director
The object in front of us is by Claes Oldenburg, an American sculptor who was born in Sweden. The title of this work is Three-Way Plug, Scale A (Soft), Protoype in Blue. Done in 1971. And it was done actually from an idea that Oldenburg had when he visited the Art Center. He came by on New Year's Day of 1971. Oldenburg was going into the Pei Wing and his eye went up into the Pei Wing you know because there are clerestory windows up there and you're in this wonderful space and you tend to look up. And Oldenburg felt that the architect was maybe calling too much attention to himself. And what Oldenburg wanted to do was to bring the viewers' eyes down a bit and to look at the art.
I had wanted to get something by the artist. I really wanted it to be a soft sculpture. I thought one of his great innovations was using material that lent itself to changing form by using soft materials, so that a work could look different in different situations. So, you can do all kinds of things with it. You can make it lie down, you can splay those legs, those prongs, and it takes on different forms depending on what you do with the piece.
He came up with this proposal and I really liked it immensely. I liked it because this sculpture, with these eyes and nose as I'll call them part of the holes of a three-way plug and the prongs that descend from the plug. They all take on a kind of anthropomorphic element to them. They look like a person and that's not just the case with this work, Oldenburg has done this in a very, very large number of his works. I've always liked the work not when it's necessarily suspended from the ceiling, but when those prongs hit the floor. It's like a big oaf, a very pleasant, jovial kind of oaf. It's not threatening at all. I think it's not threatening because of the blue color. Certainly, Oldenburg's works bring a certain joy, I think.
