Oranges Advertisement, from the series The Store

Donated to the AMAM by Ellen Johnson, Oranges Advertisement was constructed by Pop Artist Claes Oldenburg as part of his 1961 endeavor known as "The Store," in which the artist set up shop in a storefront in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Circumventing the traditionally high value ascribed to fine art by the gallery system, Oldenburg's store allowed the public to wander in off the street and purchase renderings of household goods--such as food or articles of clothing--for reasonable prices. As in Oranges Advertisement, these ordinary objects are estranged by their massive scale and brightly colored, expressionistically-painted surfaces.