Geometric Mouse--Scale B by Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg

This & That

On View
Jul 17 – Aug 23, 2025
Tokyo
 
 
Pace is pleased to present This & That, an exhibition of work by American artist Claes Oldenburg, at its Tokyo gallery from July 17 to August 23. Bringing together sculptures and prints that exist in series created by the artist between the 1960s and mid 2000s, this lively survey will showcase the importance of multiplicity in Oldenburg’s practice, inviting visitors to immerse in the artist’s madcap world and uncover resonances and touchpoints to Japanese culture.

Curated by Pace CEO Marc Glimcher and Maartje Oldenburg—daughter of Oldenburg and his wife and longtime collaborator Coosje van Bruggen, and head of the artists’ estates—the exhibition is organized as part of the gallery’s 65th anniversary year celebration. It will also be Pace’s first major presentation of Oldenburg’s work since the gallery announced its global representation of the Oldenburg estate, the van Bruggen estate, and the Oldenburg and van Bruggen estate, continuing its commitment to sharing the intertwining legacies and individual achievements of the two artists with its global audience.

The Japanese title of the gallery’s presentation is いろいろ (“Iroiro”), which roughly translates to “various,” “variety,” or “miscellany.” Suggesting a mixed-bag or a hodgepodge, “Iroiro” can also be written as 色々, which comprises a repetition of the Kanji character 色 (“Iro”). “Iro” literally means “color,” but it typically refers to the color or hue of things. It can also suggest an object’s general appearance, and even more metaphorically, can refer to the sensuality of a thing (as in the occasional English usage of the word “colorful”). “Iroiro” thus echoes Oldenburg’s almost passionate involvement with banal objects, the way he lovingly coaxed a vast array of ordinary, miscellaneous things from their humdrum existence in the normal course of life—the "this and that”—into subject-matter for serious artistic inquiry.

In a broad sense, Pace’s show will shed light on Oldenburg’s fascination with multiplicity, the act of artistic reproduction, and the mutability of imagery. Widely known for the monumental artworks he realized around the world with van Bruggen, he also created many domestically sized objects across a wide variety of media throughout his career. “The multiple object,” he once said, “was for me the sculptor’s solution to making a print.”

This exhibition in Tokyo will be the first major presentation of Oldenburg’s work in the Japanese capital since 1996. The artist’s only other solo show in the city took place in 1973 at Minami Gallery. Notably, he debuted his large-scale Giant Ice Bag (1970) sculpture, which is animated by mechanical and hydraulic components, in the US Pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka. Since 1995, Oldenburg and van Bruggen’s large-scale sculpture Saw, Sawing has been on public view outside the Tokyo International Exhibition Center. Oldenburg’s sculptures Inverted Q (1977–88) and Tube Supported by Its Contents (1983) can be found in the collections of the Yokohama Museum of Art and the Utsunomiya Museum of Art, respectively.

Oldenburg—who presented his first solo exhibition with Pace in 1964—was a leading voice of the Pop Art movement who, over the course of more than six decades, redefined the history of art with his sculptures, drawings, and colossal public monuments that transform everyday objects into idiosyncratic entities. He rose to prominence in New York in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he was among the artists staging Happenings—a hybrid art form incorporating installation, performance, and other mediums—on the city’s Lower East Side. Collaborative and ephemeral, these environments included The Street (1960) and The Store (1961)—his first solo presentation with Pace featured works from The Store. Following his work with props in these Happenings, Oldenburg began creating his iconic soft sculptures, which charted new frontiers in the medium, upending its traditional contents, forms, and materials.

Oldenburg and Pace’s Founder and Chairman Arne Glimcher maintained a friendship for 60 years, working closely from the early years of the artist’s career up until his death in 2022. Since the 1960s, Pace has presented Oldenburg’s work in some 30 exhibitions and produced seven catalogues dedicated to his practice. The gallery also supported Oldenburg and van Bruggen’s creation of the large-scale sculptures Typewriter Eraser, Scale X (1998-99), which is part of the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Balzac Pétanque (2002), which is in the collection of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and Floating Peel (2002) at the Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, among many other projects.

Among the works in the gallery’s upcoming Tokyo show will be some 60 multiples of Oldenburg’s painted cardboard sculpture N.Y.C. Pretzel (1994)—these works will be presented in a vending machine vitrine near the entrance of the gallery space. Other multiples in the exhibition include the artist’s cast plaster Wedding Souvenir (1966), his painted aluminium and brass Profiterole (1989–90), and his sewn canvas Mouse Bags (2007–17), all of which speak to his engagement with the quotidian, from the food we eat to pop cultural icons like Mickey Mouse.

In the way of larger-scale sculpture, This & That will feature Tied Trumpet (2004), a knotted bright yellow trumpet rendered in aluminum, plastic tubing, canvas, felt, and foam, and Miniature Soft Drum Set (1969), a set of nine sewn screen-printed elements on canvas. Another highlight will be Knife Ship 1:12 (2008), an aluminum and mahogany wood reprisal of the monumental Knife Ship that Oldenburg and van Bruggen presented as part of their legendary 1985 performance Il Corso del Coltello (The Corse of the Knife) in Venice, Italy—this storied, site-specific project, realized by the artists in collaboration with curator Germano Celant and architect Frank Gehry, centered around a boat in the shape of a Swiss-army knife, which was floated down the city’s canals.

A 1976 screenprint of the Knife Ship superimposed onto the image of the Guggenheim Museum in New York—an artwork that predates the performance—will also be included in This & That. Other prints on view at Pace in Tokyo will be Alphabet in Form of a Good Humor Bar (1970), which renders the alphabet in the shape of an ice cream bar; The Letter Q as Beach House, with Sailboat (1972), where Oldenburg imagines the letter ‘Q’ as a towering waterfront home; and the artist’s Apple Core prints, each representative of one of the four seasons, from 1990.

Through his iterative and elastic process of translating imagery from one medium to another—and suggesting innumerable possible transformations as part of that process—Oldenburg expanded the possibilities of art by inviting the viewer to look again. Taken together, the works in this exhibition reflect his uncanny ability to render the familiar strange, and to imbue magic and wonder into the most mundane of subject matter.

 
Films

Claes Oldenburg's This & That: Animating the Ice Cream Cone

In this new series of films produced on the occasion of This & That, Maartje Oldenburg discusses the subjects and themes that inspired her father's lively sculptures. Here, she shares insights on Oldenburg's long-lasting experimentations with the formal possibilities of ice cream. With his depictions of decadent desserts, Maartje says, the artist engaged the viewer in "disguises of representational art."

Films

Claes Oldenburg’s This & That: Sculptures You Can Hear

In this new series of films, Claes Oldenburg's daughter Maartje Oldenburg discusses the themes and subjects that inspired her father’s lively sculptures. Here, she discusses the artist’s ability to use everyday materials to realize intricate musical instruments as animated sculptural entities. “Depicted in transition, the instruments imply sound while signifying through silence renewal in death,” she says.

Films

How Claes Oldenburg Redefined What Sculpture Can Be

Pace Founder and Chairman Arne Glimcher recounts memories of his first encounters with Claes Oldenburg—with whom he would maintain a 60-year friendship—in the early 1960s. Oldenburg’s first solo exhibition with Pace, which took place in Boston in 1964, featured works from his sculptural installation The Store. Here, Glimcher discusses Oldenburg’s radical and uncanny ability to transform everyday objects into animated sculptural entities, and how the artist changed “the history of what sculpture can be.”

 

Featured Works

Claes Oldenburg,
Calico Bunny,
1997
1997, pigment on canvas, polyester, painted wood, and metal, 13" × 10" × 6" (33 cm × 25.4 cm × 15.2 cm)
Claes Oldenburg,
Calico Bunny,
1997
1997, pigment on canvas, polyester, painted wood, and metal, 13" × 10" × 6" (33 cm × 25.4 cm × 15.2 cm)
Claes Oldenburg,
Geometric Mouse--Scale B
1970-1972, acrylic lacquer on aluminum with brass, 37-1/2" x 43" x 34" (95.3 cm x 109.2 cm x 86.4 cm), dimensions variable
Claes Oldenburg,
Geometric Mouse, Scale E 'Desktop',
2013
2013, painted aluminium sculpture on painted aluminium base, 16.5 cm × 21 cm (6-1/2" × 8-1/4")
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
The Mouse Bag - Tan,
2007
2007-2017, sewn canvas painted with latex, 16-1/2" × 19" × 10" (41.9 cm × 48.3 cm × 25.4 cm)
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
The Mouse Bag - Red,
2007
2007-2017, sewn canvas painted with latex, 15" × 20" × 10" (38.1 cm × 50.8 cm × 25.4 cm)
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
The Mouse Bag - Blue,
2007
2007-2017, sewn canvas painted with latex, 16" × 19" × 8" (40.6 cm × 48.3 cm × 20.3 cm)
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
The Mouse Bag - Purple,
2007
2007-2017, sewn canvas painted with latex, 15" × 20-1/2" × 8" (38.1 cm × 52.1 cm × 20.3 cm)
Claes Oldenburg,
The Soap at Baton Rouge,
1990
1990, portfolio containing limited edition artwork comprised of: Claes Oldenburg's Artist Catalogue (unsigned) hard cover: Multiples in Retrospect 1964-1990 soap: cast resin bed: vinyl filled with aluminum silicate water: two-colored screenprint on acetate sheet, 1-3/8" x 20-1/2" x 13-1/2" (3.5 cm x 52.1 cm x 34.3 cm), overall, portfolio 7/16" x 4 3/4" x 2 3/4" (1.1 cm x 12.1 cm x 7 cm), soap 3/4" x 9 1/2" x 12 1/2" (24.1 cm x 31.8 cm), bed
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
60th Birthday Stradivarius,
2002
2002, canvas, wood, metal, cord; painted with latex, 2" × 29" × 14" (5.1 cm × 73.7 cm × 35.6 cm)
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
Tied Trumpet,
2004
2004, aluminum, canvas, felt, polyurethane foam, rope, cord; coated with resin and painted with latex; plastic tubing, 50-1/2" x 23-1/2" x 15" (128.3 cm x 59.7 cm x 38.1 cm)
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
Silent Metronome,
2004
2004, canvas, wood, metal and cord; painted with acrylic and latex, 16-1/2" x 8-1/2" x 10" (41.9 cm x 21.6 cm x 25.4 cm)
Claes Oldenburg,
Miniature Soft Drum Set,
1969
1969, set of 9 sewn screen printed elements on canvas, some with washline, wood, plastic buttons, rope, metal eye screws and spray enamel with wood base covered with screen printed paper in colors, 9 3/4 x 19 x 13 3/4 inches (work) 10 3/8 x 20 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches (box)
Claes Oldenburg,
Paint Torch mock up
n.d., painted wood with metal base, 15-1/2" × 10-1/16" × 5" (39.4 cm × 25.6 cm × 12.7 cm)
Claes Oldenburg,
Paint Torch mock up (Large)
n.d., painted wood and metal, 53" × 21" × 6" (134.6 cm × 53.3 cm × 15.2 cm), approx. overall
Claes Oldenburg,
N.Y.C. Pretzel,
1994
1994, painted cardboard in plexiglass vitrine, 6-1/2" × 6-3/4" × 1/2" (16.5 cm × 17.1 cm × 1.3 cm)
Claes Oldenburg,
Wedding Souvenir,
1966
Los Angeles, 1966, cast plaster, 5-7/8" × 6-1/2" × 2-3/8" (14.9 cm × 16.5 cm × 6 cm)
Claes Oldenburg,
Profiterole,
1989
1989-90, cast aluminium and brass multiple with latex paint, hand-colouring, 5-3/4" × 9-1/8" × 8-5/8" (14.6 cm × 23.2 cm × 21.9 cm)
Claes Oldenburg,
Ice Cream Sundae on Tray
1962, enamel on plaster, glass, ceramic, aluminum spoon, paper napkin and plastic, in six parts, 4-5/8" × 16-1/2" × 12" (11.7 cm × 41.9 cm × 30.5 cm)
Claes Oldenburg,
Model (Ghost) Juicit (Silex Juicit),
1965
1965, liquitex on canvas filled with cotton and burlap, on canvas-covered wooden base, 19" × 18" × 16" (48.3 cm × 45.7 cm × 40.6 cm)
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
Study for a Sculpture in the Form of a Perfume Bottle and Atomizer,
1997
1997, expanded polystyrene and wire, painted with latex, 8-1/4" × 8" × 5" (21 cm × 20.3 cm × 12.7 cm)
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
Studio Valentine,
1994
1994, Burlap coated with resin, wire, wood; painted with latex and spray enamel, 9" × 4-1/2" × 4" (22.9 cm × 11.4 cm × 10.2 cm)
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
Model for Architect's Handkerchief,
1997
1997, aluminum, felt, clay and resin painted with latex, 28 x 31-1/2 x 19" (71.1 x 80 x 48.3 cm)
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
Knife Ship 1:12,
2008
2008, aluminum and mahogany wood, 8-1/2" x 40" x 9-1/2" (21.6 cm x 101.6 cm x 24.1 cm), closed without oars, 27-3/4" x 82-3/4" x 37" (70.5 cm x 210.2 cm x 94 cm), fully extended with oars (blades at 180 degrees; corkscrew at 90 degrees), 32-3/4" x 40" x 37" (83.2 cm x 101.6 cm x 94 cm), partially extended with oars (blades and corkscrew at 90 degrees), Edition 4 of 6
Claes Oldenburg,
Study for Colossal Ashtray - Model,
1974
1974-1975, Cor-ten steel, 12-5/8" x 29" x 25-3/8" (32.1 cm x 73.7 cm x 64.5 cm)
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
Blueberry Pie à la Mode, Flying, Scale A,
1996
1996, cast aluminum painted with polyurethane enamel, 29" x 57" x 27" (73.7 cm x 144.8 cm x 68.6 cm)
Oldenburg/van Bruggen,
Study for Blueberry Pie à la Mode, Flying,
1996
1996, plaster painted with acrylic on metal, wood and plastic base painted with latex, 24" x 17" x 11-1/8" (61 cm x 43.2 cm x 28.3 cm)
Claes Oldenburg,
Alphabet in Form of a Good Humor Bar,
1970
1970, offset lithograph on wove paper, 29" × 20" (73.7 cm × 50.8 cm), paper 31-1/2" × 22-1/2" × 1-1/2" (80 cm × 57.2 cm × 3.8 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Proposed Monument for Mill Rock, East River, NYC: Slice of Strawberry Cheesecake,
1992
1992, etching and aquatint on wove paper, 23" × 29-3/4" (58.4 cm × 75.6 cm), paper 25-1/2" × 32-1/8" × 1-5/8" (64.8 cm × 81.6 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Ice Cream Desserts C,
1976
1976, etching and aquatint on handmade paper, from a series of 3, 22-1/2" × 31-1/4" (57.2 cm × 79.4 cm), paper 25-1/8" × 33-7/8" × 1-5/8" (63.8 cm × 86 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Profiterole,
1990
1990, lithograph on handmade paper, 31-1/4" × 41" (79.4 cm × 104.1 cm), paper 33-1/2" × 43-1/2" × 1-5/8" (85.1 cm × 110.5 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Cherry,
1991
1991, woodcut on Okawara paper, 26" × 18-1/4" (66.2 cm × 46.5 cm), paper 28-1/8" × 20-5/8" (71.4 cm × 52.4 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Tea Bag,
1972
1972, lithograph on wove paper, 30-3/4" × 22-1/2" (78.1 cm × 57.2 cm), paper 33-1/2" × 25-1/4" × 1-5/8" (85.1 cm × 64.1 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Baked Potato with Butter,
1972
1972, lithograph on handmade paper, 31" × 40" (78.7 cm × 101.6 cm), paper 33-1/2" × 43" × 1-5/8" (85.1 cm × 109.2 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Pizza / Palette,
1996
1996, lithograph on wove paper, 29-3/8" × 38-1/2" (74.6 cm × 97.8 cm), paper 32" × 40-5/8" × 1-5/8" (81.3 cm × 103.2 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Apple Core - Winter (from The Four Seasons series),
1990
1990, from series of 4 lithographs on various wove papers, 40-5/8" × 30-1/4" (103.2 cm × 76.8 cm), paper 43-3/4" × 34" × 1-5/8" (111.1 cm × 86.4 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Apple Core - Spring (from The Four Seasons series),
1990
1990, from series of 4 lithographs on various wove papers, 40" × 30" (101.6 cm × 76.2 cm), paper 43-3/4" × 34" × 1-5/8" (111.1 cm × 86.4 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Apple Core - Summer (from The Four Seasons series),
1990
1990, from series of 4 lithographs on various wove papers, 41" × 31" (104.1 cm × 78.7 cm), paper 43-7/8" × 34" × 1-3/4" (111.4 cm × 86.4 cm × 4.4 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Apple Core - Autumn (from The Four Seasons series),
1990
1990, from series of 4 lithographs on various wove papers, 41-1/4" × 31" (104.8 cm × 78.7 cm), paper 43-3/4" × 34" × 1-3/4" (111.1 cm × 86.4 cm × 4.4 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
The Letter Q as Beach House, with Sailboat,
1972
1972, lithograph on wove paper, 39" × 29-1/2" (99 cm × 75 cm), paper 41-1/2" × 32" × 1-5/8" (105.4 cm × 81.3 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Bat Spinning at the Speed of Light, State II,
1975
1975, lithograph on rag paper, 37" × 25" (94 cm × 63.5 cm), paper 39-3/4" × 25-1/4" × 1-5/8" (101 cm × 64.1 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Proposed Colossal Monument for Battersea Park, London, Drum,
1966
1966/69, offset print, 24" × 35-1/4" (61 cm × 89.5 cm), paper 27-5/8" × 39" × 1-5/8" (70.2 cm × 99.1 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Colossal Flashlight in Place of Hoover Dam,
1982
1982, offset lithograph on rag paper, 33" × 23-7/8" (83.8 cm × 60.6 cm), paper 35-9/16" × 26-3/8" × 1-5/8" (90.3 cm × 67 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
System of Iconography – Plug, Mouse, Good Humor, Lipstick, Switches,
1970
1970-71, offset lithograph on wove paper, 28" × 23-5/16" (71.1 cm × 59.2 cm) 30-1/2" × 25-7/8" × 1-5/8" (77.5 cm × 65.7 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Wrist Watch Rising,
1991
1991, woodcut on Kozo paper, 20" × 16" (50.8 cm × 40.6 cm), paper 22-1/4" × 18-1/4" × 1-1/4" (56.5 cm × 46.4 cm × 3.2 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Picasso Cufflink,
1974
1974/74, lithograph on wove paper, 36-1/8" × 26-7/8" (91.8 cm × 68.3 cm), paper 38-1/2" × 29-9/16" × 1-5/8" (97.8 cm × 75.1 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
Claes Oldenburg,
Study for Steel and Lead Ashtray,
1976
1976, etching and aquatint on wove paper, 35-1/4" × 37-3/4" (89.5 cm × 95.9 cm), paper 37-1/2" × 40" × 1-5/8" (95.3 cm × 101.6 cm × 4.1 cm), frame
 
 
EXHIBITION DETAILS

Claes Oldenburg
This & That
July 17 – Aug 23, 2025

Above: Claes Oldenburg, Geometric Mouse--Scale B, 1970-72 © Claes Oldenburg
GALLERY

1F; Azabudai Hills Garden Plaza-A
5-8-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku
Tokyo