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Mike Kelley, “Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites” (1991/1999)

colorful hanging spheres made of stuffed animals

” Medium Plush toys sewn over wood and wire frames with styrofoam packing material, nylonrope, pulleys, steel hardware and hanging plates, fiberglass, car paint, and disinfectant

Dimensions Overall dimensions variable

Credit: Partial gift of Peter M. Brant, courtesy the Brant Foundation, Inc. and gift ofThe Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection (by exchange), Mary Sisler Bequest(by exchange), Mr. and Mrs. Eli Wallach (by exchange), The Jill and Peter KrausEndowed Fund for Contemporary Acquisitions, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz,Mimi Haas, Ninah and Michael Lynne, and Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann” (credit)

Claes Oldenburg, “Floor Cake” (1962)

a large soft sculpture of a slice of cake

Claes Oldenburg. Floor Cake, 1962. Synthetic polymer paint and latex on canvas filled with foam rubber and cardboard boxes, 58 3/8 x 114 1/4 x 58 3/8 in. Museum of Modern Art, Gift of Philip Johnson. (credit)

“Claes Oldenburg’s Floor Cake (1962) entered into the Painting and Sculpture Department at MoMA in 1975. Measuring five by nine feet, this popular piece of painted cake has been heavily exhibited in the Museum and across the United States, and has made three transatlantic voyages. The forty-seven-year old sculpture is now in the Conservation Department lab for study and treatment.

History of Floor Cake

In 1961 Claes Oldenburg opened a shop, The Store, in his workshop in New York’s Lower East Side, from which he sold plaster re-creations of foodstuffs and merchandise.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYGa_KBJQ0Y[/youtube]

In a subsequent incarnation of The Store at the Green Gallery in New York in 1962, Oldenburg developed an art of parody and humor by grossly enlarging the scale of familiar objects, and created such works as MoMA’s Floor Cake and Floor Burger, which is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Installation view of the exhibition Claes Oldenburg at MoMA (September 23–November 23, 1969). Photo: James Mathews; courtesy of MoMA

Installation view of the exhibition Claes Oldenburg at MoMA (September 23–November 23, 1969). Photo: James Mathews; courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art Archives

Operated from 1960 to 1965, the Green Gallery was located at 15 West Fifty-seventh Street New York City. In addition to Oldenburg, it displayed the work of such artists as Tom Wesselmann, Dan Flavin, James Rosenquist, Donald Judd, and Robert Morris.

Oldenburg working on his giant soft sculptures on the floor of the Green Gallery. (MoMA P & S curatorial files)

Oldenburg working on his giant soft sculptures on the floor of the Green Gallery. Image courtesy of MoMA

Floor Cake can be seen in the background, while Floor Cone (1962), also in MoMA’s collection, is in the foreground.

In our second post next Monday, we will talk about the materials and methods Oldenburg used to make Floor Cake, including a peek inside the layers…

By Margo Delidow, Sculpture Conservation Research Fellow, and Cynthia Albertson, Painting Conservation Kress Fellow” (credit)