Claes Oldenburg was born in Stockholm in 1929 and he grew up in New York, Rye, Oslo and Chicago.  He studied art and English literature from 1946 until 1950 at Yale University.  Also, until 1954, he visited a course at the Art Institute in Chicago.

His early work consisted of satirical drawings and showed tendencies of Abstract Expressionism.  When Oldenburg moved to New York in 1956, he came into touch with the circles of the Happening artists like Allan Kaprow and George Segal, who inspired him to object and collage works.  In the following years, he dealt with alienated objects of daily use in the sense of pop art.  He was represented at the documenta 5, 6 and 7 in Kassel, as well as at the Venice Biennale in 1964.

In Fra...