Claes OldenburgAmerican, 1929–2022Pat Reading in Bed, Lenox
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
Whitney Museum of American Art
New York, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- Source
- The museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- 2002.4
In the catalog
Sources
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- Image: Whitney Museum of American Art — © the artist or rights holder
Meanwhile, in the life of Claes Oldenburg
The whole life1959
Patty Mucha, model and future wife
Patty Mucha, who had come to New York in 1957 to become an artist, met Oldenburg while posing nude for his portraits; his drawing “Pat Reading in Bed, Lenox, 1959” is in the Whitney Museum of American Art.
May 1959
First show at the Judson Gallery
In May 1959 the Judson Gallery at Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square held Oldenburg's first one-man show — figurative drawings and papier-mâché sculptures. The artist Robert Beauchamp called him “brilliant” against a “dull” Abstract Expressionist period.
1960
Married: Patty Mucha
by 1960
Sculptures of cardboard and burlap
By 1960 Oldenburg was making sculptures of simply rendered figures, letters and signs, inspired by the Lower East Side where he lived, out of cardboard, burlap and newspaper.
1960s
Happenings of the “Ray Gun Theater”
In the 1960s Oldenburg, now associated with Pop art, staged happenings he called the “Ray Gun Theater”, with Lucas Samaras, Tom Wesselmann, Carolee Schneemann and others; his first wife Patty Mucha, who sewed many of his early soft sculptures — “Floor Hamburger”, “Floor Cone”, “Floor Cake” — was a constant performer.
December 1961
“The Store” on the Lower East Side
In 1961 Oldenburg switched to sculptures of chicken wire covered with plaster-soaked canvas and enamel paint — clothing and food. In December he rented a store on Manhattan's Lower East Side for “The Store”, a month-long installation first presented at the Martha Jackson Gallery and stocked with sculptures in the form of consumer goods.
