Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg was born in Sweden in 1929. His family moved to the U.S. when he was 7 years old and lived in New York and then Chicago. He went to Yale University after graduating high school but later returned to Chicago to study art at the Art Institute.


In the early 1970s, Oldenburg began creating the large scale sculptures he is famous for today. The sculptures are larger versions of common, everyday objects. You can find Oldenburg's sculptures all around the world!



















This summer I got the chance to see two of Oldenburg's sculptures in person when I took a trip to Kansas City, Missouri. The Giant Shuttlecocks were on the front lawn of an art museum and the Giant Handkerchief was on campus of the Kansas City Art Institute. If you look closely you can see me in the first picture, (click on the pictures to see them bigger).