Oldenburg rented a storefront and filled it with rough plaster versions of dresses, pastries, shoes, meats, and objects for sale. It was both shop and artwork, parody and participation. The boundary between buying and looking began to blur.
Painted plaster, muslin, wire, and found materials arranged as an environment and commercial performance.
The store format turns consumption into theater. Handmade commodities parody the slickness of mass production.
Artists in New York were expanding beyond traditional painting into happenings, environments, and performance.
“I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.”
The Store influenced installation art, performance art, and later critiques of commerce.
What did this stir in you?