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Baked Potato
19664 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (11.4 x 26.7 x 18.4 cm)
Claes Oldenburg
United States (Stockholm, Sweden, 1929 – 2022, New York, NY)
Object Type:
Sculpture
Medium and Support:
Painted cast resin on a Shenango china dish
Credit Line:
The Charles Rand Penney Collection of the Memorial Art Gallery
Accession Number:
1975.333.4
Location: Not currently on view
Collection:
The Charles Rand Penney Collection
Edition: 17/75
Printer: Knickerbocker Machine & Foundry, New York
Publisher: Tanglewood Press, Inc., New York
Portfolio: Seven Objects in a Box
"Seven Objects in a Box"
"Seven Objects in a Box" was the first edition of Pop multiples - that is an editioned group of objects instead of prints. Rosa Esman, a young art collector on a budget, who attended all of the Pop shows and witnessed the popularity of the Warhol and Lichtenstein shopping bags, believed that Pop objects might be met with the same enthusiasm. She had already published the Pop print portfolio, "New York Ten," in 1964. Since artists had begun using or creating objects themselves - Warhol was making Brillo boxes and signing real Campbell soup cans, and Jasper Johns made sculptures of beer cans - Esman envisioned that the next step would be to have artists make a group of objects for a portfolio.
The availability of new technology made it possible to create the artist's visions. For example, Tom Wesselmann's "Little Nude" could not have been created before World War II because the technology of vacuum-formed molding was not available. The artists also needed the ability to mass-produce the objects they designed. Luckily, New York was the perfect place to find offbeat cottage industries capable of producing 100 sand cast faucets and baked enamel sunrises.
The result of Esman's effort is a combination of objects quite typical of each artist's personal work. Warhol used a still from a movie he made in 1963 called "The Kiss." The film froze on a close-up of a black man and a white woman kissing, a subject considered quite provocative at the time. Wesselmann's "Little Nude" is lifted right from his "Great American Nude" series, which he began in 1961, featuring highly simplified, stylized, abruptly cropped female bodies, usually focusing on the lips, nipples and genitalia. D'Arcangelo's "Side-View Mirror" takes his signature highway motif one step further by placing it in actual side-view mirror hardware. In the end, what is left is a series of small-scale mementos of each artist's larger works: mass-produced objects available to the public at a reasonable price so that "consumers" could also be "collectors."
[Gallery label text]
"Seven Objects in a Box" was the first edition of Pop multiples - that is an editioned group of objects instead of prints. Rosa Esman, a young art collector on a budget, who attended all of the Pop shows and witnessed the popularity of the Warhol and Lichtenstein shopping bags, believed that Pop objects might be met with the same enthusiasm. She had already published the Pop print portfolio, "New York Ten," in 1964. Since artists had begun using or creating objects themselves - Warhol was making Brillo boxes and signing real Campbell soup cans, and Jasper Johns made sculptures of beer cans - Esman envisioned that the next step would be to have artists make a group of objects for a portfolio.
The availability of new technology made it possible to create the artist's visions. For example, Tom Wesselmann's "Little Nude" could not have been created before World War II because the technology of vacuum-formed molding was not available. The artists also needed the ability to mass-produce the objects they designed. Luckily, New York was the perfect place to find offbeat cottage industries capable of producing 100 sand cast faucets and baked enamel sunrises.
The result of Esman's effort is a combination of objects quite typical of each artist's personal work. Warhol used a still from a movie he made in 1963 called "The Kiss." The film froze on a close-up of a black man and a white woman kissing, a subject considered quite provocative at the time. Wesselmann's "Little Nude" is lifted right from his "Great American Nude" series, which he began in 1961, featuring highly simplified, stylized, abruptly cropped female bodies, usually focusing on the lips, nipples and genitalia. D'Arcangelo's "Side-View Mirror" takes his signature highway motif one step further by placing it in actual side-view mirror hardware. In the end, what is left is a series of small-scale mementos of each artist's larger works: mass-produced objects available to the public at a reasonable price so that "consumers" could also be "collectors."
[Gallery label text]
Marks
Artist's signature, inside: C.O. 17/75
Provenance
Purchased by Charles Rand Penney, Olcott, NY; given to the Gallery in 1975
Keywords
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Additional Images
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- Charles Rand Penney Collection Memorial Art Gallery 2/27/1976 - 3/28/1976
- An Exhibition of Small Sculptures Memorial Art Gallery 1/18/1977 - 2/25/1977
- Exhibition at Long Ridge Mall Memorial Art Gallery 4/18/1977 - 5/17/1977
- Newman's Gift: 50 Years of Photography International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House 7/8/1994 - 10/30/1994
- Dimensions in Pop Memorial Art Gallery 1/17/2003 - 3/23/2003
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- Article Title: Acquisition: The Charles Rand Penney Foundation Collection. Article Scope: article. Memorial Art Gallery. Gallery Notes. Rochester, New York: Memorial Art Gallery, 1935-1995. Volume Number: 41, Issue Number: 6. Issue Date: February 1976.
- Article Scope: Mention. Elizabeth Brayer. Magnum Opus: The Story of the Memorial Art Gallery, 1913-1988. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 1988.
- The Charles Rand Penney Collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 1976.
- Richard Axsom. Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg: A Catalogue Raisonné. New York, NY: Hudson Hills Press, 1997.
- Memorial Art Gallery. ARTiculate. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2000--.
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Constance W. Glenn. The Great American Pop Art Store: Multiples of the Sixties. Santa Monica, CA: Smart Art Press, 1998.
Portfolio List
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This object is a member of the following portfolios: