Floor Burger Sculpture

A sculpture whose surface is elaborately and deliberately painted the floor burger should be experienced both as a physical object that occupies three dimensional space and as a painted thing.

Floor burger sculpture. Oldenburg introduced sculpture to pop art beginning with a series inspired by duchamp s readymades and the bluntly prosaic subjects chosen by pop artists like warhol and lichtenstein. The work created in 1962 by pop art pioneer claes oldenburg was initially titled giant hamburger. For his seminal 1962 triptych floor cake floor burger and floor cone oldenburg enlisted the help of his first wife patti mucha who used a portable singer sewing machine and heavyweight canvas to sew the covers of these large objects oldenburg then coated the objects surfaces with paint. Floor cone floor burger and floor cake shown here were among the monumental structures based on comfort food fashioned by the artist in the early 1960s.

His first wife 1960 1970 patty mucha who sewed many of his early soft sculptures was a constant performer in his happenings. Oldenburg created the large scale soft sculptures floor burger floor cone and floor cake for the 1962 installation of the store at the green gallery in midtown manhattan. The art gallery of ontario purchased the floor burger from the sidney janis gallery in new york on jan. Floor burger giant hamburger was created in 1962 by claes oldenburg in pop art style.

About 50 art students also. For the new york run of the touring claes oldenburg exhibition that opens at the museum of modern art in april the art gallery of ontario agreed to lend its iconic oldenburg soft sculpture floor burger 1962. In the run up to the loan the ago decided to publicly exhibit the conservation treatment i was doing on the burger we thought of it as a chance for visitors to see the kind of work. Oldenburg introduced sculpture to pop art beginning with a series inspired by duchamp s readymades and the bluntly prosaic subjects chosen by pop artists like warhol and lichtenstein.

This brash often humorous approach to art was at great odds with the prevailing sensibility that by its nature art dealt with profound expressions or ideas. Floor cone floor burger and floor cake shown here were among the monumental structures based on comfort food fashioned by the artist in the early 1960s. These works might be described as sewn object paintings.