Claes Oldenburg

Growing up near a city filled with museums, I was lucky enough to be exposed to amazing works of art. My visits to the Frick Collection, housed in one of the only remaining Gilded Age mansions in New York, have clearly been my favorite throughout the years. In that special ambiance, I discovered the glowing and extraordinarily clear tranquil paintings of Johannes Vermeer. I was drawn to the three Vermeer masterpieces in the permanent exhibit. The personal qualities of both the mansion and the paintings captured my fascination and I returned frequently. With extraordinary clarity, Vermeer was able to capture objects precisely through light and space. At first I wasn’t sure why his paintings appeared so different from the other works of his time, but I soon realized they were infused with light and

William Henry Rinehart was an American sculptor who was born in 1874. He is known for his classical style and working with material such as marble. Rinehart piece Clytie is of the beautiful mythology water nymph, who gracefully stands while holding a sunflower. Frederick William MacMonnies is also an American sculptor born in 1863 who was also a painter and a portraitist. MacMonnies piece Bacchante and Infant Faun is of a bacchante teasing an infant with grapes while she appears to be drunk from drinking wine. Rinehart’s Clytie and MacMonnies “Bacchante and Infant Faun” focused on each women beauty and importance.

They may be border in thick, Reich frames, and always have a smooth, finished quality to them. Many of his works pay homage to the great artists such as Bosch and Ingres, or the little girls in his works can struck a haunting connection to the nymphs painted by classicist artists. It is this connection to history which again reflects a person's comfort with the known and familiar, and turns it into something confronting by pulling it from its original context.

I selected Clothespin by Claes Oldenburg as my postmodernism visual piece of art to discuss. This sculpture has multiple characteristics associated with postmodernism. I will be explaining four of them. The first postmodernism trait I want to present is recycle from the past. Clothespins were a staple in almost every household, since clothes were hung from the clothing line to get dried before the drying machine took over that function. Oldenburg took a former common every day object from the past, recycle it, and presented under a new light: as a sculpture! The second characteristic to discuss is shaped by electronic media and modes of communication. Not only we can access and look at this piece of art via electronic methods, but the artist

Salvador Dali was a surrealist painter born in the early 1900’s in Figueres, Spain. He is best known for his thought provoking images, eccentric behavior and bizarre surrealism, Dali’s art was anything but ordinary.

Claes Oldenburg was born January 28, 1929, in Stockholm, Sweden. His father was a member of the Swedish foreign service, so Claes and his family moved often. From 1930 to 1933 the Oldenburgs lived in New York, and from 1933 to 1936 they lived in Oslo, Norway. Then in 1936 the family moved to Chicago, where Claes's father served as consul general of Sweden.

Chuck Close was born on July 5, 1940 in Monroe, Washington. His father, Leslie Durward Close, was a sheet metal worker, and his mother Mildred Wagner was a trained pianist. Chuck Close’s hobbies as a kid where painting and art. Suffering from severe dyslexia, Close did poorly in school but found happiness in making art. After earning his MFA from Yale in 1964, Close turned out to be one of the most famous American art world by creating large-scale, photorealist portraits that

Lipstick on Caterpillar Tracks was created by Claes Oldenburg in 1969, and publicly displayed Yale’s Beinecke Plaza. When the Lipstick on Caterpillar Tracks was first built, Oldenburg used a base made out of plywood and and the red vinyl tip of the lipstick could be inflated and deflated. It wasn’t until later that Oldenburg decided to take down his original work 10 months later and put up a steel copy instead. During the early 70’s, there was a prime focus on the Vietnam war. The entire purpose of Oldenburg’s Lipstick on Caterpillar Tracks acknowledge the anti-war movement and The sculpture served as a stage and backdrop for several subsequent student protests.

At first, I only gave this painting a glance because I thought the colors looked very boring to me. It was not pleasing to the eye because it was your average

Chris was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18, 1949. After high school he went to the University of Michigan where he learned skills like wood carving and where he majored in sculpture and, then he went to Rhode Island School of Design and continued his study in sculpture. Chris has won two Caldecott Medals. For his great amount of work that he put into the illustrations in his books like the Jumanji and The Polar Express. As he continues writing and illustrating books into the 21 century.

In my opinion, this work of art was truly amazing with the touch of darkness, mystery, and elegancy. The artist used the color mixture very well for that old antique look. The artist did very well in painting the background black and the woman black dress to distinguish the dress apart from the background. The phonograph is also distinguished from the background by painting white around the device. It gives that feeling of romance and darkness at the same time. The painting leaves the viewers of wanting more which the artist should had incorporated more things rather than just the woman and the phonograph. In the end, the masterpiece is absolutely amazing with a touch of the old century and modern

Soon after, he started taking formal art lessons. Chwast drew his inspiration from comics, cartoons, billboards, and advertisements. He grew to love the art he encountered in the city around him more than the variety he saw in museums. This influence is prevalent in his later work and choice of projects.

One of his jobs was to design the weather map for NBC’s morning news. In 1952 Warhol held his first exhibit, it was not a financial success, but it enhanced Warhol’s reputation as a commercial artist. But his spare time was now taken up with pop art, inspired by Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, two young pop artist, Warhol had come across in 1958. He began to paint, draw and print everyday objects such as, dollar bills, soup cans, postage stamps, comic strips, and soda bottles. According to Warhol, these were some of the consumer products “on which America is built.”

Although it is hard to use all of these elements Van Gogh did it in an excellent manner, with nothing in this painting being overpowering to the viewer's eye. This may be the reason for the great success for Van Gogh and his piece. This piece was so different for the era that Van Gogh did not live to see his paintings success, even though he was not successful in his lifetime most of his pieces are still remembered today for their strong composition and

Frank Gehry is one of the handful modern architects that are worldwide known by his inventive and pioneering work. The American Canadian architect was born Frank Owen Goldberg in Toronto, Canada on February 28, 1929, based in Los Angeles since 1962. He studied architecture at the University of Southern California and city planning in Harvard University. Gehry is known for his postmodern structures and unusual inventions. His most popular buildings include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles.