Claes Oldenburg's Art's Statement

I am for an art that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum. I am for an art that grows up not knowing it is art at all, an art given the chance of having a starting point of zero. I am for an art that involves itself with everyday crap & still comes out on top. I am for an art that imitates the human, that is comic if necessary, or violent, or whatever is necessary. I am for an art that takes its form from the lines of life, that twists and extends impossibly & accumulates and drips and spits, and is sweet and stupid as life itself. I am for an artist who vanishes, turning up in a white cap painting signs in hallways.

I am for an art that comes out of a chimney like a black hair and scatters in the sky. I am for an art that spills out of an old man's purse when he is bounced off a passing fender. I am for an art out of a doggy's mouth, falling five floors from the roof. I am for an art that joggles like everyone's knees on a bus. I am for an art that is smoked, like a cigarette, smells like a pair of shoes. I am for an art that flaps like a flag, or helps blow noses, like a handkerchief. I am for an art that is put on and taken off, like pants, which develops holes, like socks, which is eaten like a piece of pie, or abandoned with great contempt, like a piece of shit." Claes Oldenburg

http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/searchimages/images/image_7971_20904.htm