Claes Oldenburg (American, 1929-2022) - Chicago Picasso Adapted to a Colossal Cufflink

Initialed ‘C.O.’ and dated 1972 bottom right, inscribed illegibly bottom left, pastel, chalk and watercolor on paper.
29 x 23 in. (73.7 x 58.4cm)

Provenance

The Artist.
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Oldenburg, New York, New York.

Exhibition

“Claes Oldenburg: An Anthology,” National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., February 12-May 7, 1995; traveled to Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, October 7, 1995-January 14, 1996, cat. no. 181.

Literature

Germano Celant, et al. Claes Oldenburg: An Anthology, New York: Abrams, 1995, exh. cat., cat. no. 181.

Lot Essay

As director of The Museum of Modern Art, New York from 1972-1994, and later Chairman of North and South America at Sotheby’s until 2000, Richard Oldenburg was a towering figure in the art world in the later part of the 20th Century. He and his older brother, the renowned Pop Artist Claes Oldenburg, were born in Sweden and moved to Chicago as young children, when their father assumed the role of the city’s Swedish Consul General. Their influential mother was the opera singer and abstract painter Sigrid Lindforss.

While their career trajectories diverged at first, the two brothers both ended up living in New York City in the 1960s, Richard working in publishing at Doubleday and MacMillan and Claes emerging as an influential artist on the Pop Art scene. An exhibition opening of Claes’s work at MoMA brought their worlds together, with Richard reconnecting with a colleague who suggested a role in publications at the museum. Later assuming the role of Director, Richard would have a tremendous impact on the future of the institution, in terms of expanding its physical scale and international reputation.

In an oral history for the Museum of Modern Art, Richard recounted: “through [Claes], I met Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Segal, Rosenquist—everyone—because they were all in very close contact. It was a very exciting time. It was the whole emergence of the Pop Art movement.” Richard was an avid collector, of works by these and many other contemporary artists, as well as in the decorative arts and antiques, but his collection of his brother’s works prove to be the most personal of the group. Lots 38 through 45 represent a selection of this intimate collection, primarily comprised of drawings and studies for some of Claes’s most important projects. Also included are several figure studies and a brooding self-portrait. Many of the works were generously lent to the artist’s exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Gallery, Washington, D.C. and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, among other prestigious institutions.