Clinical Study, towards a Heroic-Erotic Monument in the Academic/Comics Style
Claes Oldenburg
American, born Sweden. 1929–2022
1965
A ballpoint-pen drawing in which Oldenburg piles exaggerated, comic and eroticized figures into a single, satirical ‘monument’ that mixes academic grandiosity with cartoon play.
You first notice a roiling, sculptural tangle of fleshy, distorted bodies—drawn with restless cross-hatching and overlapping gestures—punctuated by small comic vignettes that make the sheet feel alive, messy, and electric.
The drawing braids high-art academic monumentality with lowbrow comic and erotic imagery, anticipating Oldenburg’s project of turning everyday materials and popular forms into oversized, humorous public sculptures that reframe what counts as monumental art.
Medium
Ballpoint pen on paper
Dimensions
26 x 40" (66 x 101.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Robert Lehman Endowment Fund for Acquisitions by the Department of Drawings, The Museum of Modern Art, and Gift of Robert Breer in memory of Carl Breer (by exchange)
Accession
27.2016
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
