Research Catalog

Title

[Proposal for a catalog of my retrospective exhibition in the form of a Swiss cheese sandwich].

Author

Oldenburg, Claes, 1929-2022.

Publication

[1969]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Platzker, David, 1965-

Description

1 sculpture (4 pieces) : cardboard, cloth, spray enamel, brown, dark brown; 26 x 26 x 3.3 cm., 26 x 27 x 8.3 cm., 37 x 33 cm.

Summary

Consists of 2 corrugated cardboard constructions with spray enamel, square-shaped with rounded corners (27 x 27 x 3.3 cm.), representing the "bread slices"; 1 sheet of corrugated cardboard with round cutouts (37 x 33 cm.), representing the "slice of Swiss cheese"; and a cover for the whole, in the form of book covers, constructed from corrugated cardboard and cloth. The darker "crusts" on the "bread slices" are delineated by pencil lines; one "slice" is labeled "top" in pencil.

Genre/Form

• Sculpture.
• Book objects.
• Book designer's mock-ups (Publishing) – United States – 20th century.

Note

• Title and date of execution from A bottle of notes and some voyages.
• "The text is divided into two equal shapes of bound pages; square, with rounded corners, the 'bread slices.' Between them is a loose 'slice of Swiss cheese,' made of plastic, like a book mark. The three elements are held together but not attached in a cover of corrugated cardboard. An attempt to equate the form of the book with its contents"--Artist's note, from A bottle of notes and some voyages.
• "This sculpture was a prototype made by Oldenburg in anticipation of his 1969 retrospective [Sept. 25-Nov. 23, 1969] at the Museum of Modern Art, New York"--Accompanying notes by David Platzker.
• Illustrated in: Oldenburg, Claes. A bottle of notes and some voyages. Sunderland [England] : Northern Centre for Contemporary Art ; New York : Distributed by Rizzoli International Publications, 1988. p. 92.
• Accompanied by a mounted transparency (13 x 10 cm.; mount 19 x 20 cm.), showing the assembled sculpture, and sheet containing notes by David Platzker.

Exhibitions (note)

• Exhibited: "A bottle of notes and some voyages," Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, England, and other venues in England, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Spain and Finland, 1988-1990; "Claes Oldenburg: books and ephemera, 1960-1994," Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, East Hampton, New York, and Printed Matter, New York, N.Y., 1994.

Call Number

Spencer Coll. Amer. 1969 10-219

OCLC

670251366

Author

Oldenburg, Claes, 1929-2022.

Title

[Proposal for a catalog of my retrospective exhibition in the form of a Swiss cheese sandwich].

Imprint

[1969]

Exhibitions

Exhibited: "A bottle of notes and some voyages," Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, England, and other venues in England, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Spain and Finland, 1988-1990; "Claes Oldenburg: books and ephemera, 1960-1994," Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, East Hampton, New York, and Printed Matter, New York, N.Y., 1994.

Added Author

Platzker, David, 1965-

Research Call Number

Spencer Coll. Amer. 1969 10-219