Who said art is for the 1pc?

A New York exhibition celebrates making art for the masses and feeling good about it.

Claes Oldenburg’s Miniature Soft Drum Set was produced in an edition of 200 by Multiples Inc. Marian Goodman Gallery

Blake Gopnik

Jan 13, 2021 – 2.17pm

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Somewhere around the fall of 1967, a couple of newly-minted PhDs, feeding six kids on an income of something like $US9000($11,600), set out to decorate their modest house.

They brought home a wall-filling banner by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, which had a dotty seascape cut into its cloth. And a tabletop set of "soft" drums made of canvas by his colleague-in-pop Claes Oldenburg. Also, a colourful set of abstractions: squares within squares by Josef Albers of the Bauhaus.