Claes Oldenburg Nail in Landscape ca. 1976

Original ink drawing on paper. Hand Signed. Framed.

"Nail in Landscape" is a whimsical, original signed drawing in ink on paper by Claes Oldenburg - a quintessential example of one of the everyday objects like screws, nails, sparkplugs, shovels, clothespins etc. that Oldenburg famously re-scales and removes from its original context. The notion of enlarging a diminutive, everyday object and placing it in a landscape - an idea integral to Oldenburg's monumental public art - comes from the Surrealists such as Magritte, Dalí, and Ernst. In this respect, Oldenburg is said to be the most Surreal of the Pop artists. That said -- if you were embarrassed for thinking this rendering of a nail appears phallic - you need not be. Indeed, you may be shocked to discover how fertile Oldenburg's sexual imagination was, to put it euphemistically. A lesser known part of his oeuvre, in fact, is his sexually explicit drawings and prints, exhibited at the height of the sexual revolution.  Richard Morphet, in writing about Oldenburg's erotic drawings from the 1970s, for example. noted the following: "These fantasy drawings have an early precedent in Oldenburg's school days when his marked facility in drawing enabled him to give pictorial form to erotic activities that interested him and his fellow students but which were forbidden subject matter....the drawings as a whole evoke something of the extraordinary range of states of mind which sexual experience can open up, from happy innocence to disturbing violence, from comedy to dejection, from ritualism to exuberant vitality. Some of the images, especially those evoking a trapped, burdened state, are positively tragic....At the heart of the erotic fantasy drawings is a central theme of all of Oldenburg's work, metamorphosis." While not part of his erotic series of drawings, "Nail in Landscape' also exemplifies the theme of metamorphosis, where the nail is transformed in size, environment and, arguably, even its very identity.  

Measurements: 

frame: 8 1/4 x 6 1/4 x 1/4 inches

sheet: 4 3/4 x 3 inches

A rare, original, and highly collectible drawing; a classic gem at a reasonable price point. Framed and ready to hang. 

Buyer agrees that Alpha 137 Gallery, it's owners and affiliates do not carry any liability for works during transport in the very unlikely event of loss or damage. 

SIGNATURE

Hand signed on lower recto (front).