Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg was a pop artist who commonly used rough canvas/muslin dipped in plaster to make his large sculptures; he made his sculptures in such as way so you could immediately see that it was obvious that they weren't real – unlike the Japanese wax food displays (which are amazing if I might add!)

His work was meant to be a parody of expressionist paint and sculpture by making plaster versions of actual food painted some in an expressionist manner.

The collections of pastries that he’s made are not edible and not real but manifestations of art that were self-sufficient rather than serving a purpose, his work has been compares to the Netherlands paintings which are a way of celebrating manners of conspicuous consumption

Oldenburg often used traditional sweet or desirable products (Ice-cream, banana splits, cake etc) which are often always advertised as ‘home-made’ but clearly came straight from a factory – but it is a play-on-words since the sculpture work is truly made by the artist but not for mass consumption. 

I looked back at Oldenburg because when doing the collages inspired by Linder Sterling I found that when I used food in the collages it reminded me of him.