Wedding Souvenir
Artist
Claes Oldenburg
(American, born 1929)
Date1966
Mediumplaster
Dimensions15 x 17 x 5.3 cm (5 7/8 x 6 11/16 x 2 1/16 in.)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineGift of James Elliott
Terms
Object number1984.172
Label TextWith Claes Oldenburg’s pioneering creation of The Store in 1961, a shop front in New York from which he sold painted plaster re-creations of foodstuffs (pastries and fruits) and merchandise (apparel and jewelry), the boundaries between art and other commodities intentionally were blurred. Later in the decade, his interest in making art available to everyone led him to produce sculptural multiples, art objects fabricated in quantities (like the publication of a book) according to the plans of the artist in a conventional industrial process in order to keep the price lower and thus, in theory, make art accessible to more people. Typically, these sculptures were re-creations of everyday commodities produced and consumed in unlimited quantities—tea bags, pastries, baked potatoes. Wedding Souvenir, a plaster slice of cake, was conceived as a multiple for a friend’s wedding and “served” to the couple’s guests.
ProvenanceBrought by Tom Freudenheim to the Museum from James ElliottOn View
Not on view
