Page 44 - Studio International - May 1966

Conditioned historic reactions

New York commentary by Dore Ashton

The promising ironies implicit in Claes Oldenburg's In all these statements there is the germ of revolt, but a
statement that he is a 'technological liar' rarely material- revolt weakened by inconsistencies. On the one hand
ize in his work. Oldenburg has written a number of Oldenburg postulates an art sweet and stupid as life itself,
teasingly equivocal statements about his work, always and on the other he wants an art outside the 'real world'.
suggesting that there is a firm ideology sewn into the flac- He wants to think of himself as an ironist, a 'technological
cid flanks of his objects, but never quite coming out with it. liar', and he wants to think of himself as a realist. He wants
In 1961, he wrote that he was for an art 'that takes its to produce identifiable objects and he wants to 'determine'
form from the lines of life, that twists and extends im- form. He scorns the museum, but finds himself preparing
possibly and accumulates and spits and drips, and is sweet an exhibition.
and stupid as life itself.' In 1965, he states that he has never With all his thrusts against the world of art, Oldenburg
made a separation between the museum and the hardware has not succeeded in holding himself aloof from it. He is
store and that what he wants to do 'is to create an inde- keenly aware of history and has hinted that his direction
pendent object which has its existence in a world outside of was taken in conscious opposition to the preceding genera-
both the real world as we know it and the world of art.' tion. 'The last generation believed very much in the work
In 1966, he offers studio notes in the catalogue for his of art as an idealized thing. They thought of themselves
Claes Oldenburg
Four Dormeyer Blender large exhibition at the SIDNEY JANIS GALLERY, in which he very idealistically as great creators, magicians. The point
(Four Dormeyer models) 1965 provides clues to his new motifs, particularly the anatomy of view has shifted as it does in the history of art to a re-
Stencilled canvas and kapok of the automobile, and makes certain allusions to his action against this, and the artist wishes to be an ordinary
Height 48 in. Width 36 in.
Depth 24 in. aspirations as a sculptor. 'In the slightly stiffened canvas man.'
Sidney Janis Gallery sculpture, I determine the form more.' But this coquetry about being an ordinary man is un-