Claes Oldenburg

“Pop art is a way of liking things.”

“To give dignity to the object is my religion.”

“The main reason for the colossal objects is the obvious one, to expand and aggrandize the object to the point where it becomes a monument.”

“The city is a sculpture.”

“For a thing to be a monument, it has to be heroic.”

“My intention is to make an everyday object that looks like a monument.”

“All the things I was making, I was making for myself.”

“Humor is a kind of saving grace, and it’s also a way of exposing the truth.”

“I think of my work as a kind of diary.”

“I wanted to make something that was not a representation of something but the thing itself.”

“I want to make things that are not just beautiful but that also have a sense of humor and are a little bit absurd.”

“I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.”

“Everything I do is completely original—I made it up when I was a kid.”

“I am for an art that takes its form from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates and spits and drips, and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself.”

“I am for an art that grows up not knowing it is art at all.”

“I am for an art that is messy and clumsy and sweet and stupid as life itself.”