Claes Oldenburg MoMA Exhibit: "The Street And The Store" Brings Pop Art Universe To Life

Claes Oldenburg - Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich). 1963. Vinyl, kapok, and wood painted with acrylic. 32 x 39 x 29” (81.3 x 99.1 x 73.7 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Gift of The American Contemporary Art Foundation, Inc., Leonard A. Lauder, President. © 1963 Claes Oldenburg. Photo: David Heald, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (click photo for larger image)If you’re planning on being in New York any time between now and early August--don’t miss this exciting Claes Oldenburg event:

“This month, a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York is tackling Oldenburg's larger-than-life kitsch in a survey of two of his major works: 'The Street' (1960) and 'The Store' (1961-64). The separate, neatly packaged collections of smaller-scale works address everything from cigarettes and lingerie to hamburgers and candied apples, using cardboard, newspaper and plaster to turn mundane products into art.”

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Claes Oldenberg (born 1929) is a Swedish born American Pop-artist, best known for his huge sculptures made out of everyday objects.

Charles Sheeler - A Major American Modernist

Golden Gate - Charles Sheeler  - 1955 - Oil on canvas - H. 25-1/8, W. 34-7/8 inches (63.5 x 86.4 cm.) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
Charles Sheeler (American, 1883–1965) - Criss-Crossed Conveyors, River Rouge Plant, Ford Motor Company - 1927 - Gelatin silver print - Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ford Motor Company Collection - Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987.Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) was one of the founders of American Modernism, one of the most important photographers of the 20th century, and an artist whose work is synonymous with Precisionism. Trained in industrial drawing, decorative painting, and applied art, Sheeler synthesized his understanding of each discipline into a singular, Precisionist approach.

“Equally gifted as a photographer and painter, Sheeler analyzed the relationships between photography and traditional artistic methods such as painting and drawing with more rigor and intellectual discipline than perhaps any other American artist of his generation.”

The Harlem Renaissance and Jacob Lawrence

Tombstones - Jacob Lawrence - 1942 - Gouache on paper - 28 3/4 x 20 1/2 in (73 x 52.1 cm) - Whitney Museum of American Art, New York“The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering of African-American social thought that was expressed through the visual arts, as well as through music, literature, theater and dance. Musical artists included the likes of Louis Armstrong, Eubie Blake, Fats Waller, and Billie Holiday. Important literary figures were Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and W.E.B. DuBois. Actor Paul Robeson) and dancer Josephine Baker were also significant figures. Centered in the Harlem district of New York City, the movement had a profound influence across the United States and even in other parts of the world. Visual artists at the core of the Harlem Renaissance movement included William H. Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones and the sculptor and printmaker Sargent Claude Johnson. Other prominent artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance included Jacob Lawrence, Archibald Motley and Romare Bearden..." (who we recently featured on What About Art?).

The work of Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) “...combines realism with abstract decorative design and deals primarily with the black experience in America. In narrative series of paintings, he has highlighted the lives of outstanding blacks and chronicled contemporary black history.” READ MORE...

The Jacob and Gwen Knight Lawrence Virtual Resource Center  has an enormous amount of information about Jacob Lawrence and his wife Gwen (also an artist), plus a searchable archive of nearly 1,000 artworks.

Blues for Smoke

Jean-Michel Basquiat - Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta - 1983 - Acrylic, oil paintstick, and paper collage on canvas, five panels - 48 x 184 inches - The Brant Foundation Inc., Greenwich, Connecticut - © 2012 The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society, New YorkThe Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles “is proud to present Blues for Smoke, a major interdisciplinary exhibition exploring a wide range of contemporary art, music, literature, and film through the lens of the blues and ‘blues aesthetics.’”

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This exhibit is on view now, and will be up through January 7, 2013. It features an amazing collection of artists including: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Gregg Bordowitz, Mark Bradford, Kamau Brathwaite, Ed Clark, Roy DeCarava, Beauford Delaney, Jeff Donaldson, Stan Douglas, Jimmie Durham, Melvin Edwards, William Eggleston, Charles Gaines, Renée Green, David Hammons, Kira Lynn Harris, Rachel Harrison, Barkley L. Hendricks, Leslie Hewitt, Martin Kippenberger, Jutta Koether, Liz Larner, Zoe Leonard, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Barbara McCollough, Dave McKenzie, Rodney McMillian, Mark Morrisroe, Matt Mullican, Senga Nengudi, Kori Newkirk, Lorraine O’Grady, John Outterbridge, Adrian Piper, William Pope.L, Jeff Preiss, Amy Sillman, Lorna Simpson, Henry Taylor, Alma Thomas, Bob Thompson, Wu Tsang, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, William T. Williams, Martin Wong. Now...you’re bound to find a few of your favorites in that group! 

Arte Povera

Mario Merz - Fall of the House of Usher - 1979. Oil, metallic paint and charcoal on canvas, with neon fixture and rock, Overall 11' 8 1/2" x 14' 3/4" (356.9 x 428.6 cm). Anne and Sid Bass Fund. © 2012/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome, Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) New York, NYItalian for "Impoverished Art" or "Poor Art", the term Arte Povera is a label for a small group of artists who were experimenting with nontraditional and politically charged art, in 1960s-1970s Italy. These artists created and explored modes of expression such as ephemeral art, performance art, installation art and assemblage. These techniques have since become extremely common tools in contemporary art. This is an example of a small and short-lived movement that nevertheless continues to have great relevance today. Mario Merz (1925-2003) was one of the movement’s practitioners.