Claes Thure Oldenburg

Claes Thure Oldenburg was born in Stockholm to a Swedish diplomat and grew up in Chicago. After studying literature and art history at Yale University and fine arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he moved to New York in 1956. In 1961, he opened "The Store" in Manhattan's Lower East Side, selling colorful plaster and fabric sculptures of diner food, dresses, and cigarettes, blurring the line between commercial merchandise and fine art.

Oldenburg revolutionized Pop art by creating "soft sculptures"—vinyl and canvas fans, hamburgers, and typewriters stuffed with kapok that surrendered to gravity. Beginning in the late 1960s with Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks at Yale, he collaborated with his wife Coosje van Bruggen to build massive, joyous public sculptures around the world: the 45-foot Clothespin in Philadelphia, the iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Shuttlecocks in Kansas City.