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 knew I wasn't that good a writer, and all I could remember was that I could draw. I'm better at drawing than I am at writing.
Claes OldenburgThe thing about the ray gun is, you pick up anything you see on the street that's the shape of a gun.
Claes OldenburgI was very happy to be living in New York at that time, more than in the present time. Now it's all commerce.
Claes Oldenburg