Collection Close-Up: Claes Oldenburg and the Geometric Mouse
Sep 22 – Dec 30, 2018
Main Building
Claes Oldenburg, Model for a Geometrically Formed Mouse, 1975. Steel and paint, 21 ½ × 24 × 16 in. (54.6 × 61 × 40.6 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, Promised Gift from the Collection of Louisa Stude Sarofim. © 2018 Claes Oldenburg. Photo: Paul Hester
Claes Oldenburg, Notebook Page: Mouse Head Variations, 1966. Ballpoint pen on paper, 11 x 8 ½ in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, Promised Gift from the Collection of Louisa Stude Sarofim. © 2018 Claes Oldenburg. Photo: Ellen Labenski, courtesy of Pace Gallery
Installation view of Collection Close-Up: Claes Oldenburg and the Geometric Mouse
Installation view of Collection Close-Up: Claes Oldenburg and the Geometric Mouse
Installation view of Collection Close-Up: Claes Oldenburg and the Geometric Mouse
Collection Close-Up: Claes Oldenburg and the Geometric Mouse presents drawings, sculptures, and prints related to American artist Claes Oldenburg’s development of the geometric mouse during the 1960s and 1970s. Oldenburg incorporated the image of the mouse into his art in 1963, a time when artists were increasingly drawing inspiration from advertising and media. Intrigued by the ubiquity of Mickey Mouse in popular culture, over the following decade, Oldenburg adapted the iconic mouse head into oversized street banners, proposals for museum façades, and even an architectural plan for a mouse-shaped museum. The geometric mouse is embedded within his larger practice of engaging the urban landscape of New York City, with its daily inundation of sounds, images, and textures.
