Contradiction animates Oldenburg’s sculptures of everyday objects. In works such as Soft Calendar for the Month of August, what is hard is made soft, what is small is made large, and what is flat is made three-dimensional. Stuffed fabric sculptures like this one originated in 1962 as props in Oldenburg’s art events, or Happenings, and evolved into independent works. The giant numbers of Soft Calendar are sensuously rounded and pillow-like. Their overlapping arrangement asserts their volumetric nature. Each Sunday is called out in brilliant red, while the remaining days of the week are coated in white enamel. Photographic documentation suggests that Soft Calendar was assembled and painted by Oldenburg and his partner, Patty Mucha, at Green Gallery in 1962.
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New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "An American Choice: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection," May 21–September 27, 1981, unnumbered cat. (p. 51).
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Germano Celant, Dieter Koepplin, Marla Prather, and Mark Rosenthal, ed. Claes Oldenburg: An Anthology. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York, 1995, figs. 75 (installation photo of Exh. New York 1962), 87.
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Claes Oldenburg (American (born Sweden), Stockholm 1929–2022 New York)
1967
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