Claes Oldenburg - Editions & Works on Paper New York Tuesday, October 19, 2021 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • “I chose to make a soft drum set for the International Exhibition of Sculpture, which was held in the autumn of 1967 at the Guggenheim Museum, because of its resemblance to the architecture of the building. The subject, with all its accessories, was impossibly detailed, especially in its “soft” state of collapse, and in order to visualize it in a drawing for a catalogue in advance of the exhibition, I found it necessary to have a small model sewn out of canvas, which I sprayed with black enamel and set on a rough platform made from a Canadian Club whiskey carton. Later in the year, this model became the unlikely subject for the second edition done with Multiples, Inc. The sketch had the scale suitable for a multiple, but it was an extremely casual, intimate, and shabby object that seemed completely unreproducible. In its individuality, it was the very opposite of a multiple, a fact that I took as a challenge. Its softness would make each member of the edition individual.” Claes Oldenburg quoted in Claes Oldenburg: Multiples in Retrospect 1964 – 1990, p. 92

    • Literature

      Dieter Schwarz 1969.06
      David Platzker 12 (Multiples in Retrospect)
      Richard Axsom and David Platzker 61 (Printed Stuff)

    • Catalogue Essay

      "I chose to make a soft drum set for the International Exhibition of Sculpture, which was held in the autumn of 1967 at the Guggenheim Museum, because of its resemblance to the architecture of the building. The subject, with all its accessories, was impossibly detailed, especially in its “soft” state of collapse, and in order to visualize it in a drawing for a catalogue in advance of the exhibition, I found it necessary to have a small model sewn out of canvas, which I sprayed with black enamel and set on a rough platform made from a Canadian Club whiskey carton. Later in the year, this model became the unlikely subject for the second edition done with Multiples, Inc. The sketch had the scale suitable for a multiple, but it was an extremely casual, intimate, and shabby object that seemed completely unreproducible. In its individuality, it was the very opposite of a multiple, a fact that I took as a challenge. Its softness would make each member of the edition individual." Claes Oldenburg quoted in Claes Oldenburg: Multiples in Retrospect 1964 – 1990, p. 92

326

Miniature Soft Drum Set (S. 1969.06, P. 12, A. & P. 61)

1969
Screenprint on canvas, wash-line, wood and spray painted multiple, with accompanying screenprinted wove paper-covered wood base (as issued), all contained in the original plywood dovetail presentation box with printed artist's name, title and publisher.
presentation box 15 3/4 x 20 3/4 x 11 3/4 in. (40 x 52.7 x 29.8 cm)
Signed with initials and numbered 187/200 in grey marker on the large drum (there were also 18 artist's proofs in Roman numerals), published by Multiples, Inc., New York (with their and the artist's inkstamp on the underside of the wood base).

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$3,000 - 5,000 

Sold for $7,560

Contact Specialist

Editions@phillips.com
212 940 1220

 

Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 19-21 October 2021