Claes Oldenburg (1929–2022) was a Swedish-born American artist whose sculptures, performances and installations transformed ordinary consumer objects into icons of postwar art. He earned his B.A. from Yale University in 1950 and became a central figure in New York’s avant-garde art scene of the late 1950s and 1960s. Closely associated with Pop art, Oldenburg drew inspiration from storefronts, advertising, food and the everyday visual culture of the city. Oldenburg radically challenged traditional sculpture through his “soft sculptures,” recreating rigid objects such as toilets, typewriters and household appliances in fabric, vinyl and foam so that they sagged and collapsed under gravity. Beginning in 1976, he collaborated with artist Coosje van Bruggen on monumental public sculptures that transformed familiar objects into playful interventions in civic space.