Jackson Pollock and Claes Oldenburg

Happy Birthday Claes Oldenburg and Jackson Pollock! Two artists celebrate birthdays on this day and I could not possibly choose between the two! Hence, we look at both Claes Oldenburg and Jackson Pollock today. American born, Jackson Pollock (1912) is perhaps the most celebrated Abstracted Expressionist of the 20th century. He took the abstract compositions of layered, dripping paint of Mark Tobey to a much larger scale. His paintings, averaging 10X20 feet were monumental, experimental performances. In Pollock’s words, “he didn’t paint the picture of how he felt, he acted how he felt it”. Tragically, Pollock died at age 42 in a car accident after driving while intoxicated. The world lost a legend too soon.

 Born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1929, Oldenburg is known for his enlarged common household objects (clothespin, chair, bottle, etc) His art of the popular culture, or Pop Art, is a refreshing look at everyday life by placing the mundane object in the humorous, out of context position as public sculpture. Much of Odenburg’s works are happenings or performance art. He collaborates with his wife on many of his projects such as Dropped Cone (39ft 10 inX19 ft), installed in Cologne, Germany in 2001.