The visual artist Claes Oldenburg, one of the most playful forces in Pop Art, has died at age 93. His death Monday was confirmed to NPR in a statement from Paula Cooper, whose gallery represented him. "It was thrilling to work with Claes, whose odd take on things was delightful, and could completely turn one's mood around," Cooper wrote.
Oldenburg's enduring fascination was to render prosaic objects — a lipstick, for example, or a rubber stamp, or a hamburger, or a cherry perched on the tip of a spoon — in giant scale, and then put that artwork in public spaces. As he told All Things Considered in 2011, " "We like the idea that the sculptures are not all in, say, New York or someplace — that they're scattered around the cities of America and Europe. ... There's a lot of people you're never going to reach. But we have reached, I think, quite a few people, in all parts of the country."
