Claes Oldenburg: The Street, The Store & Mouse Museum at MUMOK

Part I: Claes Oldenburg - The Street and The Store

Mumok presents the largest show ever of Claes Oldenburg’s ground-breaking and emblematic early work of the 60s: The Street and The Store. Highlights are the icons of art history like his famous soft sculptures, that made him, together with Warhol and Lichtenstein, to one of the founding fathers of Pop Art. Till May, 28, 2012
This exhibition will travel to the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Museum of Modern Art (Apr 14–Aug 5, 2013) and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (Sep 13, 2013–Jan 12, 2014).

Das Mumok zeigt die von Achim Hochdörfer zusammengestelle bisher umfangreichste Ausstellung von Claes Oldenburgs wegweisendem und emblematischem Frühwerk der 1960er-Jahre: The Street and The Store. Oldenburg, neben Warhol und Lichtenstein der bedeutensten Pop Art Künstler, wurde berühmt mit seinen Soft Sculptures, riesige weiche Nachbildungen von Altagsgegenständen wie Hamburgern oder Lichtschaltern. Noch bis 28. Mai 2012.
Die Ausstellung wird danach im Museum Ludwig, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Museum of Modern Art und Walker Art Center zu sehen sein.


Part II: Claes Oldenburg's Mouse Museum

Part II of the Claes Oldenburg show takes you inside the Mouse Museum. Oldenburg putted together an odd collection of kitsch, found objects, souvenirs, trivial everyday pieces and toys sometimes with a sexual connotation and humour plus material and prototyps for his art works. The Mouse Museum was first shown in 1972 at the documenta 5 in Kassel and then acquired by the Ludwig Collection and donated to the mumok. Later a seperate "Ray Gun" wing was added, also belonging to the mumok.

Im zweiten Teil der großen Claes Oldenburg The 60s Schau führt uns in das Mouse Museum, ein Sammelsourium von Trivial- und Kitschobjekten, Fundstücke, Souvenirs, Altagsgegenständen und (Sex)-Spielzeug und sowie Material und Vormodelle, die Oldenburg für seine Kunstwerke verwendete, 385 Dinge die ihn zu seiner Arbeit inspirierten aber auch ein schwarzhumoristisches Miniaturabbild der Kapitalistischen Gesellschaft zeigen und Pop Art subsumieren.

all artworks © by claes oldenburg & mumok

Additional material:


Claes Oldenburg talks about his beginnings as an artists, the early 60s in NY, his first important groups of work "The Street" and "The Store", the founding of Ray Gun and the "invention" of the Soft Sculptures. Excerpts from an artist talk in english with curator Achim Hochdörfer at MUMOK Vienna on Feb 4, 2012.


Maartje Oldenburg, daughter of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, talkes about the first proposals for the schow by Armin Hausdörfer, two years of work putting it together and renewing her personal early childhood memories about the art of her father...

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