Miniature Soft Drum Set

Claes Oldenburg's Statement on Miniature Soft Drum Set (Claes Oldenburg: The Multiples Store, 1996, p. 36):

'I chose to make a soft drum set for the International Exhibition of Sculpture, which was held in the autumn of 1967 at the Guggenheim Museum, because of its resemblance to the architecture of the building. The subject, with all its accessories, was impossibly detailed, especially in its "soft" state of collapse, and in order to visualize it in a drawing for a catalogue in advance of the exhibition, I found it necessary to have a small model sewn out of canvas, which I sprayed with black enamel and set on a rough platform made from a Canadian Club whiskey carton. Later in the year, this model became the unlikely subject for the second edition done with Multiples, Inc. The sketch had the scale suitable for a multiple, but it was an extremely casual, intimate, and shabby object that seemed completely unreproducible. In its individuality, it was the very opposite of a multiple, a fact that I took as a challenge. Its softness would make each member of the edition individual.

I did not want to re-create the original object as a facsimile; I wanted to make a parallel object whose look would be different because of the substitution of industrial procedures. The work became cleaner and more precise, a look that bothered me at first but one that I came around to accepting. Despite its new look, the Miniature Soft Drum Set still behaved like the original: it sprawled in a disorderly way, oblivious to any "right" situation. It could be made as grimy and frayed as the original by being handled and tossed around or left to gather dust. For those who wished to keep their set pristine, a boxlike plastic bag of a certain opacity was provided. It was suggested that the set be kept in this appropriately soft and rather mysterious box that allowed only parts near the surface to be seen, and only taken out occasionally. A page showing six possible ways to arrange Miniature Soft Drum Set was included for collectors who might feel uneasy dealing with the work on their own.'

Three-dimensional screenprint on canvas, with washline, wood, spray enamel, and wood covered in screenprinted paper, 1970, signed and numbered in felt pen on bass drum, from the edition of 200 (there are also 26 artist's proofs), published by Multiples Inc., New York, overall: 248 x 483 x 349 mm (9¾ x 19 x 13¾ in.)

Multiples Store 12; Multiples in Retrospect 12; Axsom and Platzker 61