SARATOGA SPRINGS — Swedish born artist Claes Oldenburg died this week at the age of 93. Oldenburg moved to New York City in the mid-1950s, when he became part of the Happenings and performance art scene.
In 2002, shortly after the opening of the Tang Museum on the campus of Skidmore College, the renowned artist’s work was featured in the exhibit “From Pop to Now: Selections from the Sonnabend Collection.”
Oldenburg’s “Giant Ice Cream Cone” grew from a series of painted plaster and soft sculpture creations displayed as “merchandise” (priced to sell for as little as $69.95!) in a storefront performance space in the East Village in the early 1960s.
“My intention is to make an everyday object that eludes definition,” he once said.
