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Art Review - Claes Oldenburg - At the Whitney, a Low-Cost Show Reinflates a Big Bag  

The Whitney, like many of us in the current economy, is finding new ways to use the things it already owns. It's recycling parts of previous exhibitions, but it's also sprucing up works that haven't been seen in decades with a good cleaning and the necessary repairs.

The strategy works well enough in a pair of shows devoted to Claes Oldenburg and his wife and collaborator, Coosje Van Bruggen, who died in January. . . .

A selection of drawings, nearly all from the Lauder gift, include Mr. Oldenburg’s fanciful yet pointed proposals for civic monuments. Many, like “Proposal for a Skyscraper in the Form of a Chicago Fireplug,” date from 1968 and are keyed to the social and political tumult of that year. Others are timelessly provocative; the stacked tubes of “Museum Design Based on a Cigarette Package” might have been dreamed up by a starchitect. . . .

"Claes Oldenburg: Early Sculpture, Drawings, and Happenings Films" and "Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen: The Music Room" continue through Sept. 6 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street; (212) 570-3600, whitney.org.

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