Radical pop artist and sculptor Claes Oldenburg dies aged 93

Friends pay tribute to Swedish-American creator who played 'inextricable role' in spearheading the 1960s movement

Claes Oldenburg, the Swedish-born American artist and key figure in the pop art movement, has died at the age of 93. Getty Images

The artist was famed for his giant sculptures. Here, he is seen with an oversized soft-sculpture toothpaste tube. Getty Images

Exterior view of Oldenburg and Frank Gehry's 'Binoculars Building' in Venice Beach, California. Getty Images

The artist had a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum in 2012. AFP

'Moveyhouse Masks' by Oldenburg. AFP

Oldenburg's sculpture in front of the Government Centre by architect Philip Johnson in Miami, Florida. Getty Images

'Geometric Apple Core' by Oldenburg and his wife Coosje van Bruggen in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California. AFP

'Bottle of Notes' by Oldenburg and his wife in Centre Square, Middlesborough, England, which was created in 1993. Getty Images

'Big Sweep' outside the Denver Art Museum, Colorado, which was also created by the husband and wife team. Getty Images

The married artists also installed 'Plantoir, Blue' at the Channel Gardens in Rockefeller Center, New York City. AFP

'House Ball' by Oldenburg, in Bonn, Germany, 1996. Getty Images

'Shuttlecocks' by Oldenburg and van Bruggen outside the Nelson-Atkins Museum Of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Getty Images

'Giant Hamburger' by Oldenburg 1962. Getty Images

'Free Stamp' by Oldenburg and van Bruggen in Willard Park, Cleveland, Ohio. Getty Images

'Giant 3-Way Plug' by Oldenburg outside the St Louis Art Museum, St Louis, Missouri. Getty Images

'The Pickaxe' on the bank of the Fulda river, Germany. Getty Images

Oldenburg enjoyed placing his work in the middle of public areas for people to enjoy, such as 'Giant Pool Balls' in Aasee, Germany. Getty Images

'Cupid's Span' by by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen in Rincon Park, San Francisco. Getty Images

'Saw, Sawing' installed outside the Main Press Centre facility during the Tokyo Olympic Games, Japan, in 2021. Getty Images

'Spoonbridge and Cherry' by Oldenburg and van Bruggen in Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Minnesota. Getty Images

Claes Oldenburg, the Swedish-born American artist and key figure in the pop art movement, died at the age of 93 on Monday.

Pace Gallery in New York, which represented the renowned artist since the 1960s, announced Oldenburg's death.

“I was honoured to have this great friendship with one of the most radical artists of the 20th century. In addition to his inextricable role in the development of pop art, he changed the very nature of sculpture from hard to soft, and his influence can be seen to this day,” said Arne Glimcher, the founder and chairman of Pace.

Scroll through the gallery above for pictures of Claes Oldenburg's best known works

Oldenburg was a key figure in the pop art movement; his concepts and work has influenced countless artists, writers, designers and filmmakers.

He was best known for his public art installations, which feature colossal, animated sculptures of everyday objects. Other themes that differentiated Oldenburg from his peers were his conceptual drawings of playful and absurd ideas such as his 1965 sketch depicting a gigantic teddy bear plonked in Central Park, New York City.

Many of Oldenburg’s works were created and developed in collaboration with his wife Coosje van Bruggen, who died in 2009.

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's 'Shuttlecocks' sculpture outside the Nelson-Atkins Museum Of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Getty Images

Oldenburg's career began in the 1950s in New York when abstract expressionism was at its peak. The movement was a reaction to the horrors of the Second World War and explored the existential, to express the feeling of awe while inspiring an emotional reaction from the viewer.

Oldenburg, along with a small group of his contemporaries at the time, was more interested in the contemporary real world than the emotional one. Mass production, advertising, film, comic strips, massive bill boards, snappy copywriting and the material elements of human existence was much more exciting for Oldenburg.

'Saw, Sawing' by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen outside the Tokyo Olympic Games media centre. Getty Images

At the start of his career Oldenburg created performance art, blurring the boundaries between reality and performance, including elements of the city into his work — a theme that proved essential for the rest of his practice.

During the 1960s, pop art was gaining momentum thanks to the works of Oldenburg’s contemporaries: Andy Warhol, who was already painting famed American objects such as Coca-Cola bottles, dollar bills and celebrities like Marilyn Monroe; and Roy Lichtenstein’s large comic strip paintings such as Drowning Girl, which were being hailed as revolutionary.

During this time in the art world, Oldenburg’s focus turned to sculpture and his interest in everyday objects was obsessive.

Household appliances, ice cream cones, hamburgers, a rubber stamp and lipsticks were replicated and enlarged into unfamiliar, often imposing dimensions and placed across cities.

One of Oldenburg’s most famous installations is the 1976 piece Clothespin. A 13-metre, nine-tonne black steel sculpture of an enlarged clothespin located at Centre Square in Philadelphia.

Pop artist Claes Oldenburg's 'Clothespin' in Centre Square, Philadelphia. AP

Not only did he push the boundaries of what art can be, challenging us to look at the objects in our lives in a new light, but he also made art more accessible and available to a global audience.