Claes Oldenburg
Proposed Colossal Monument for Grand Army Plaza, New York City: Baked Potato (Thrown Version)
1964
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Claes Oldenburg
Proposed Colossal Monument for Grand Army Plaza, New York City: Baked Potato (Thrown Version)
1964
Physical Qualities
Brush and black ink and black crayon, Sheet: 583 x 736 mm. (22 15/16 x 29 in.)
Credit Line
Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection
Object Number
1965.31
In the mid-1960s, Claes Oldenburg created a series of drawings that were proposals for colossal monuments around New York City. In them, baked potatoes, teddy bears, and ice cream cones took over plazas and major intersections. The plans were never realized, however, because they were too impractical. In the proposals, Oldenburg hyper-monumentalized everyday items. In this drawing, the artist, frustrated with the subject, imagined what a baked potato thrown against the Plaza Hotel might look like.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1965; Mr. Edward Benesch, NY; Sidney Janis Gallery, NY
Sidney Janis Gallery, "Recent Work by Arman, Dine, Fahlstrom, Marisol, Oldenburg, and Segal, 5 May - 31 May 1965.
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, "Claes Oldenburg Skulpturer och Tecknigar," 17 September - 30 October 1966.
Barbara Haskell, "Claes Oldenburg Object into Monument," Pasadena Art Museum and tour, 1971, cat. 68, illus. p. 15.
Victor Carlson and Carol Hynning Smith, BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries"; circulated by the American Federation of Arts to the Guggenheim Museum, NY, 24 August - 7 October 1979; Des Moines Art Center, 19 November 1979 - 6 January 1980; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 8 February - 16 March, 1980; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1 May - 22 June 1980 ; Denver Art Museum, 12 July - 24 August, 1980.
BMA, "Drawings from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 14 October - 12 December 1982.
BMA, "Selected Drawings from the Thomas E. Benesch Collection," 3 September - 1 December 1985.
BMA, "Modern Master Drawings from the Museum's Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 21 February - 30 April 1989.
BMA, "Drawings by Sculptors," 21 August - 7 October, 1990.
BMA, "Drawings of the 1960s from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 17 November 1993 - 30 January 1994.
BMA, "Major Modern Drawings from the Collection," 8 October - 18 December 1994.
Mark Alice Durant, BMA, "Front Room: Notes on Monumentality," 27 February - 25 May 2008.
Ann Shafer, BMA, "On Paper: Drawings from the Benesch Collection," 18 November 2012 - 10 February 2013.
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, "Claes Oldenburg Skulpturer och Tecknigar," 17 September - 30 October 1966.
Barbara Haskell, "Claes Oldenburg Object into Monument," Pasadena Art Museum and tour, 1971, cat. 68, illus. p. 15.
Victor Carlson and Carol Hynning Smith, BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries"; circulated by the American Federation of Arts to the Guggenheim Museum, NY, 24 August - 7 October 1979; Des Moines Art Center, 19 November 1979 - 6 January 1980; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 8 February - 16 March, 1980; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1 May - 22 June 1980 ; Denver Art Museum, 12 July - 24 August, 1980.
BMA, "Drawings from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 14 October - 12 December 1982.
BMA, "Selected Drawings from the Thomas E. Benesch Collection," 3 September - 1 December 1985.
BMA, "Modern Master Drawings from the Museum's Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 21 February - 30 April 1989.
BMA, "Drawings by Sculptors," 21 August - 7 October, 1990.
BMA, "Drawings of the 1960s from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 17 November 1993 - 30 January 1994.
BMA, "Major Modern Drawings from the Collection," 8 October - 18 December 1994.
Mark Alice Durant, BMA, "Front Room: Notes on Monumentality," 27 February - 25 May 2008.
Ann Shafer, BMA, "On Paper: Drawings from the Benesch Collection," 18 November 2012 - 10 February 2013.
BMA News, vol XXIX, nos. 3-4, 1967, p. 13 (illus. p. 15).
Claes Oldenburg, "Proposals for Monuments and Buildings 1965-69," Big Table Publishing Co., Chicago, 1969, plate 4, p. 47 (printed in reverse).
"The Thomas Edward Benesch Memorial Collection," BMA, 1970, unpaginated.
Inscribed: lower right in black crayon: "C.O. / 65"; lower left in black crayon: "N.Y."
Markings: Chopmark: Strathmore
