at Reclining Nude
10 x 13 1/2 inchesPat Reclining Nude, 1959
paper: 10 x 13 1/2 inches
frame: 21 x 25 inches
Signed with initials and dated 59 lower left
Provenance
Gift from the Artist
Patty Mucha, New York
Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, Oct 1975
Private Collection, New York
Claes Oldenburg Pat Reclining Nude, 1959, wax crayon on paper, is a unique nude drawing of Patty Mucha, who was Oldenburg's first wife from 1960 until they divorced in 1970.
CLAES OLDENBURG DRAWINGS OF PATTY
Claes Oldenburg Pat Reclining Nude, 1959, wax crayon on paper, is a unique nude drawing of Patty Mucha, who was Oldenburg's first wife from 1960 until they divorced in 1970. Another Claes Oldenburg 1959 nude drawing of Patty titled Pat Reading in Bed, Lenox, 1959, wax crayon on paper, is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Early in 1958, Oldenburg began painting large-scale oils of nudes, faces and everyday situations; most of these Oldenburg paintings have been destroyed although an Oldenburg painting of Patty, Pat Standing in a Radish Patch, 1959 is in the collection of The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Many of Oldenburg's drawings, which includes his nude drawings he started in 1958 were studiesand like the paintings, the drawings emphasized light and tone.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Patty Mucha met Claes Oldenburg after she moved to New York in 1957 to become an artist. When Oldenburg was painting portraits, Patty Mucha became one of his nude models. Patty Mucha (Patricia Muschinski) was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 26, 1935. In 1957, Patty moved to New York to become an artist and met Oldenburg by accident after being in New York for two months. The last painting that Claes Oldenburg claims to have painted of Patty Mucha is titled Girl with Fur Piece, Portrait of Pat.
Patty Mucha was not only Oldenburg’s muse for his main performance ensemble but his collaborator for all early series of sewn sculptures. Her contribution to the invention of soft sculpture was the result of the immediate demand for Oldenburg’s first exhibition at the Green Gallery in 1962. She appeared in his Ray Gun Theater, which they produced in 1962and collaborated by sewing costumes and constructing objects and sets for Oldenburg's Happenings. Patty appeared in Oldenburg films made by Rudy Wurlitzer and Robert Breer as well as in films by Jean Dupuy, Rudy Burckhardt, Andy Warhol and Red Grooms. She also participated in the Happenings of Jim Dine, Robert Whitman, Dick Higgins, Alex Hay, Steve Paxton, Simone Forti and Sally Gross.
