Miniature Soft Drum Set

Currently not on view

Miniature Soft Drum Set

1969

Claes Oldenburg (American (born Sweden), 1929–2022)

With its worn folds, frayed edges, and canvas skins that gently sag at their seams, Miniature Soft Drum Set appears well broken in, despite having never made a sound. Claes Oldenburg, a prominent Pop artist and master of soft sculpture, first sought to visualize a soft drum set in 1967. Having found it “impossible to imagine and therefore to draw,” he designed a pattern to be silkscreened onto canvas and sewn together. Like real drum sets, Oldenburg’s sculpture may be reassembled in various configurations. In this way, the work can take an endless multiplicity of unique forms.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Miniature Soft Drum Set
Miniature Drum Set

Date:

1969

Artist:

Claes Oldenburg (American (born Sweden), 1929–2022)

Medium:

Silkscreened canvas on wooden base covered with silkscreened paper, cord and wood parts

Dimensions:

12 x 17 x 21 inches (30.5 x 43.2 x 53.3 cm)

Classification:

Sculpture

Credit Line:

Gift of Carl Steele, 1981

Accession Number:

1981-85-6a,b

Geography:

Made in United States, North and Central America

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Currently not on view