I am preoccupied with the possibility of creating art which functions in a public situation without compromising its private character of being antiheroic, antimonumental, antiabstract, and antigeneral. The paradox is intensified by the use on a grand scale of small-scale subjects known from intimate situations--an approach which tends in turn to reduce the scale of the real landscape to imaginary dimensions.
Claes OldenburgI am for the art of underwear and the art of taxicabs. I am for the art of ice cream cones dropped on concrete.
Claes OldenburgMy rule was not to paint things as they were. I wasn't copying; I was remaking them as my own.
Claes OldenburgI think the Freudian impulse is in everything, so I just accept it. I don't always believe what Freud is saying but it sounds like fun.
Claes Oldenburg