FESTIVAL 72 SEATTLE CENTER CLAES OLDENBURG POSTER

The City of Seattle was to become a fantasy play area with a proposal by Claes Oldenburg to build a sculpture in the shape of a colossal faucet appearing to pour water into Lake Union. But this sculpture, Faucet for Lake Union, was never built.  Instead, Oldenburg used the faucet design for this Festival '72 Seattle Center poster, as if to pour musical and arts events into a never ending flow of life's creative waters around Seattle.

Oldenburg was born in Sweden in 1930 and grew up in Chicago.  After moving to New York City in the mid-1950s, he began developing a sculpture style in which he took familiar objects and gave them a different scale, shape and texture, with the result that they took on a new meaning.  

In the 1960s he created soft sculptures with canvas and vinyl, making cartoon versions of everyday objects such as Two Hamburgers and Toilet.  Continuing his fascination with ordinary items as sculpture, he took small objects and made them gigantic, thereby stripping them of their utility, as illustrated in this drawing for his proposed sculpture in Seattle. His work, often whimsical, has ranged from drawings and paintings to public sculptures, both mini and monumental. 

 In 1977 he married artist Coosje van Bruggen (1942 – 2009), who collaborated with him on many of his projects.  

For lovers of whimsy, this poster is a must-have!

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