Claes Oldenburg: The Street and The Store

16 / 17

Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich) Date: 1963 Medium: Vinyl, kapok, and wood painted with acrylic Dimensions: 32 x 39 x 29" (81.3 x 99.1 x 73.7 cm) Credit Line: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Gift of The American Contemporary Art Foundation, Inc., Leonard A. Lauder, President

Claes Oldenburg. Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich). 1963

Vinyl, kapok, and wood painted with acrylic
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Gift of The American Contemporary Art Foundation, Inc., Leonard A. Lauder, President Audio courtesy of Acoustiguide

Director, Glenn Lowry: To make his large-scale sculptures Oldenburg worked closely with his then-wife Patty Mucha, who would sew them together. In 1963, the year this work was made, vinyl was a relatively new material on the market.

Artist, Claes Oldenburg: And it was a fantastic material—so beautiful, so colorful, and also so adaptable to almost anything. So Patty and I started to work with vinyls, and the first vinyl piece was the BLT sandwich. It has a toothpick in it that Richard Artschwager made and some of the bacon also. He made the bacon. And vinyl, in those days, was very exciting thing. It was thick and fresh, and it didn't lose its color, which was very nice.