Seven New Wonders of the World is a series of imaginary monuments invented by Oldenburg and originally presented as a portfolio in Horizon in 1972. Horizon was a quarterly magazine of the artists published by American Heritage from 1959 to 1989. The suite of drawings evince Oldenburg’s fascination with the ubiquitous objects of everyday life and his vision for a fantastic alternative landscape populated by these unlikely forms. In the article accompanying the portfolio in Horizon Oldenburg shared the motivation behind his imaginary monuments: “At the moment I am pretending to be an architect. I think that it is because the artist doesn’t have any real place in society that I assume a position that does have some reality, like an architect.”
Each drawing is preceded by a short descriptive text that originally accompanied the work in Horizon.
Planned Monument to the American Indian, above, consists of a huge left foot, sole skyward, surmounting the sheer rock of Alcatraz Island. The fan-shaped structure extends up from the entrance to the nail of the big toe. Seen from a plane, the monument would look like the foot of a man buried head-down-”a very positive statement about footprints,” says Claes Oldenburg, and perhaps about the Indians as well.
Claes Oldenburg
Alcatraz Island Reconstructed as a Landscape in the Form of an Upturned Foot - (Planned Monument to the American Indian) - View of the Entrance, 1971
pencil and colored pencil on paper
sight: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
frame: 18 x 20 5/8 in. (45.7 x 52.4 cm)
signed and dated lower right corner, recto: “CO 71”
Provenance:
Collection of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Exhibited:
Drawing Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, January 21 – March 7, 1976
Claes Oldenburg: Dibujos 1959 - 1989, IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia, Spain, September 15 – November 15, 1989
Literature:
Roy Bongartz, “Oldenburg Draws: Seven New Wonders of the World,” Horizon Magazine, 1972, pp. 70 - 81
Carmen Alboch, Coosje van Bruggen, Claes Oldenburg, Claes Oldenburg Dibujos 1959 - 1989, exh. cat., (Valencia: IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez, 1989), p. 94, illus.
David Platzker, ed., Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg, A Catalogue Raisonné 1958 - 1996, (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997), p. 205, illus.
Arch to Span the Suez Canal consists of two huge columns joined by a slender span and each surmounted by a replica of the Sphinx’s ear. The columns would serve as listening posts, one to be manned, or eared, by Israelis, the other, of course, by Egyptians.
Claes Oldenburg
Arch to Span the Suez Canal - Ears of the Sphinx, 1971
pencil on paper
sight: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
frame: 21 x 17 5/8 in. (53.3 x 44.8 cm)
signed and dated lower right corner, recto: “CO 71”
Provenance:
Collection of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Exhibited:
Drawing Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, January 21 – March 7, 1976
Claes Oldenburg: Dibujos 1959 - 1989, IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia, Spain, September 15 – November 15, 1989
Literature:
Roy Bongartz, “Oldenburg Draws: Seven New Wonders of the World,” Horizon Magazine, 1972, pp. 70 - 81
Carmen Alboch, Coosje van Bruggen, Claes Oldenburg, Claes Oldenburg Dibujos 1959 - 1989, exh. cat., (Valencia: IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez, 1989), p. 99, illus.
David Platzker, ed., Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg, A Catalogue Raisonné 1958 - 1996, (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997), p. 207, illus.
Bridge over the Rhine at Diisseldorf in the Shape of a Colossal Saw is Oldenburg’s answer to his own question, “Why should buildings not have the shape of objects?” The giant saw bridge would be made of steel with a glassed-in arcade running through the teeth. A passage above would carry vehicular traffic.
Claes Oldenburg
Bridge Over the Rhine at Dusseldorf in the Shape of a Colossal Saw, 1971
crayon, pencil, and watercolor on paper
sight: 10 1/2 x 14 in. (26.7 x 35.6 cm)
frame: 17 7/8 x 20 5/8 in. (45.4 x 52.4 cm)
signed and dated lower right corner, recto: “CO 71”
Provenance:
Collection of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Exhibited:
Drawing Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, January 21 – March 7, 1976
Claes Oldenburg: Dibujos 1959 - 1989, IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia, Spain, September 15 – November 15, 1989
Literature:
Roy Bongartz, “Oldenburg Draws: Seven New Wonders of the World,” Horizon Magazine, 1972, pp. 70 - 81
Carmen Alboch, Coosje van Bruggen, Claes Oldenburg, Claes Oldenburg Dibujos 1959 - 1989, exh. cat., (Valencia: IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez, 1989), p. 100, illus.
David Platzker, ed., Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg, A Catalogue Raisonné 1958 - 1996, (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997), p. 207, illus.
Cemetery in the Shape of a Colossal Screw was inspired by a news story about the shortage of burial space in São Paulo, Brazil. Oldenburg’s screwshaped cemetery would rise thirty stories above the city streets. When it was filled, it would be screwed into the ground, leaving behind at street level a circular restaurant built into the screwhead.
Claes Oldenburg
Cemetery in the Shape of a Colossal Screw Skyscraper, for Sao Paolo, Brazil, 1971
pencil and colored pencil on paper
sight: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
frame: 20 7/8 x 17 5/8 in. (53 x 44.8 cm)
signed and dated lower right corner, recto: “CO 71”
Provenance:
Collection of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Exhibited:
Drawing Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, January 21 – March 7, 1976
Claes Oldenburg: Dibujos 1959 - 1989, IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia, Spain, September 15 – November 15, 1989
Literature:
Roy Bongartz, “Oldenburg Draws: Seven New Wonders of the World,” Horizon Magazine, 1972, pp. 70 - 81
Carmen Alboch, Coosje van Bruggen, Claes Oldenburg, Claes Oldenburg Dibujos 1959 - 1989, exh. cat., (Valencia: IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez, 1989), p. 101, illus.
David Platzker, ed., Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg, A Catalogue Raisonné 1958 - 1996, (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997), p. 205, illus.
Colossal Sculpture in the Form of the Bear on the Flag of California depicts the bear upended and, in this sketch, in the final stages of excavation from the side of a hill. His feet rest upon the monumental equivalent of the grass shown on the actual flag.
Claes Oldenburg
Colossal Sculpture in the Form of a Bear on the Flag of California - Shown in the Final Stages of Excavation, 1971
pencil and colored pencil on paper
sight: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
frame: 20 7/8 x 17 5/8 in. (53 x 44.8 cm)
signed and dated lower right corner, recto: “CO 71”
Provenance:
Collection of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Exhibited:
Drawing Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, January 21 – March 7, 1976
Claes Oldenburg: Dibujos 1959 - 1989, IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia, Spain, September 15 – November 15, 1989
Literature:
Roy Bongartz, “Oldenburg Draws: Seven New Wonders of the World,” Horizon Magazine, 1972, pp. 70 - 81
Carmen Alboch, Coosje van Bruggen, Claes Oldenburg, Claes Oldenburg Dibujos 1959 - 1989, exh. cat., (Valencia: IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez, 1989), p. 95, illus.
David Platzker, ed., Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg, A Catalogue Raisonné 1958 - 1996, (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997), p. 206, illus.
Tower in the Form of a Colossal Thumb, Oldenburg’s imaginary gift to the Soviet Union, a veritable colossus of roads, is based on an old tale about a czar who was mapping out a new highway. His thumb got in the way of his pencil, causing the line to jog; the imperial engineers carefully included this error in the finished plan. Besides serving as a symbol of the absurdity of despotism, the glassed-in thumbnail would house a restaurant. Oldenburg has a thing about restaurants.
Claes Oldenburg
Tower in the Form of a Colossal Thumb, “Czar’s Thumb,” on the Moscow Road, 1971
pencil and colored pencil on paper
sight: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
frame: 20 7/8 x 17 5/8 in. (53 x 44.8 cm)
signed and dated recto: “CO 71”
Provenance:
Collection of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Exhibited:
Drawing Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, January 21 – March 7, 1976
Claes Oldenburg: Dibujos 1959 - 1989, IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia, Spain, September 15 – November 15, 1989
Literature:
Roy Bongartz, “Oldenburg Draws: Seven New Wonders of the World,” Horizon Magazine, 1972, pp. 70 - 81
Carmen Alboch, Coosje van Bruggen, Claes Oldenburg, Claes Oldenburg Dibujos 1959 - 1989, exh. cat., (Valencia: IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez, 1989), p. 98, illus.
David Platzker, ed., Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg, A Catalogue Raisonné 1958 - 1996, (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997), p. 206, illus.
Memorial to the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii-Water “Park” with Foliage, overleaf, consists of massive rocks and coral rising out of the harbor in the shape of furious clouds of smoke. To Oldenburg, the silence and tranquillity of his petrified explosions make an appealing contrast to the real raid.
Claes Oldenburg
Memorial to the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Water “Park” with “Foliage” in the Form of Explosions, 1971
pencil and colored pencil on paper
sight: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
frame: 17 3/4 x 20 5/8 in. (45.1 x 52.4 cm)
signed and dated lower right corner, recto: “CO 71”
Provenance:
Collection of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Exhibited:
Drawing Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, January 21 – March 7, 1976
Claes Oldenburg: Dibujos 1959 - 1989, IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia, Spain, September 15 – November 15, 1989
Literature:
Roy Bongartz, “Oldenburg Draws: Seven New Wonders of the World,” Horizon Magazine, 1972, pp. 70 - 81
Carmen Alboch, Coosje van Bruggen, Claes Oldenburg, Claes Oldenburg Dibujos 1959 - 1989, exh. cat., (Valencia: IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez, 1989), p. 96-97, illus.
David Platzker, ed., Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg, A Catalogue Raisonné 1958 - 1996, (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997), p. 206, illus.
