Drawing for Announcement of The Street at Reuben Gallery, 1960.
Pen and Ink, newsprint on paper.
13-7/8 x 10 inches (35.2 x 25.4 cm)
Collection of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, New York
Oldenburg's earliest environment, The Street (1960), consisted of cardboard andburlap forms in the shape of cars, signs, or figures, which the artist paintedin a rough, graffitilike style. These torn and tattered objects were suspendedfrom the ceiling or propped against gallery walls. Oldenburg employed cast-offmaterials to evoke the chaos and brutality of life in the slums of Chicago and New York.
His earliest performance, Snapshots from the City, took place within The Streetinstallation at the Judson Gallery in New York. For Oldenburg, such free-formtheatrical events were closely tied to their environment: "The 'happening,'" heexplained, "is one or another method of using objects in motion, and this Itake to include people, both in themselves and as agents of object motion."
"The performance is the main thing, but when it is over, there are a number ofsubordinate pieces which may be isolated, souvenirs, residual objects. To pickup after a performance, to be very careful about what is to be discarded andwhat still survives by itself. Slow study and respect for small things. One'sown created 'found objects.' The floor of the stage is like the street. Pickingup after is creative. Also the particular life of objects must be respected."--Oldenburg, 1962
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