On April 10, 2027, Moderna Museet opens “Soft Serve,” a retrospective of Claes Oldenburg—the Stockholm-born American monument artist and the man who turned ice cream, electrical outlets and clothespins into sculpture. Here, we look at what the exhibition promises, why his soft, playful style still makes an impact, and how to choose a pop art-style poster without making your home look like a joke shop.
Quick facts: “Claes Oldenburg, Soft Serve” is on view at Moderna Museet in Stockholm from April 10 to August 29, 2027 (dates are preliminary, according to the museum). The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Kunsthaus Zürich, where it will travel later in autumn 2027, and is curated by Jo Widoff and Cathérine Hug. Oldenburg was born in Stockholm on January 28, 1929, and died in New York on July 18, 2022, aged 93.
Soft Serve at Moderna Museet: What the Retrospective Promises for Spring 2027
Moderna Museet announced its 2027 program in late October 2026, and Oldenburg is one of the biggest highlights of the spring. The retrospective traces his work from his experiments in 1960s New York all the way to his monumental public works. The museum’s own description points to what made him unique: he found the extraordinary in overlooked everyday objects, such as bathroom fixtures, light switches and discarded cardboard boxes, and blurred the boundaries between art and life, monument and anti-monument, seriousness and play.
The title alludes to what became his signature: softness. While other sculptors carved marble, Oldenburg stuffed fabric and vinyl, making hard objects slump and become almost comically human. There’s also a Swedish connection that makes the exhibition especially interesting in Stockholm: TT describes him as Swedish-American, and the museum’s press photo of the artist was taken by Hans Hammarskiöld back in 1966. Read more about the program at Moderna Museet and in Arts & Collections’ overview of the 2027 exhibitions, and check the dates closer to your visit.
If you’re visiting Moderna Museet before April, you can get a head start on the collection exhibitions. “Monogram,” about Robert Rauschenberg and the museum’s collection, runs until January 30, 2028, and “The Underground Sky,” about Surrealism in the collection, is on view until May 28, 2028. That means you can take in practically an entire history of Pop Art and postwar art under the same roof as Oldenburg, and see how his soft, humorous approach developed alongside Rauschenberg’s assemblages. In spring 2027, the museum will also show Remedios Varo from February 20 and Anu Põder from April 10, so a visit to Skeppsholmen can easily fill a whole day.
From Sausage in 1957 to The Store in 1961: the Stockholm resident who sold sculptures as goods
Oldenburg’s path began far from Skeppsholmen. He studied at Latin School of Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago and Yale, and at the 57th Street Art Fair in Chicago he sold five works for a total of 25 dollars. In 1956 he moved back to New York, and the following year came the first soft work: a sock filled with newspaper, later called Sausage. In May 1959 he showed his first exhibition of three-dimensional works at the Judson Gallery in Judson Memorial Church at Washington Square.
The idea’s real breakthrough came in December 1961. He then rented a storefront on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and built “The Store”, a month-long installation he had first shown at the Martha Jackson Gallery. The shelves were filled with sculptures shaped like consumer goods, and the artist’s studio became a shop at the same time. The idea that art can be something you encounter in everyday life, at a price and in a form that feels familiar, is still at the heart of why pop art works as wall art. At the same time, he staged the happenings he called Ray Gun Theater, where the same playful logic could unfold in space.
Lipstick on Caterpillar Tracks, Three-Way Plug, and Coosje van Bruggen: When the Small Became Monumental
In the late 1960s, Oldenburg began imagining everyday objects on a monumental scale. “Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks” from 1969 was first placed at Beinecke Plaza at Yale, then traveled on loan between different campuses, and today stands in the courtyard of Morse College. Art historian Ellen H. Johnson described the work as a combination of vivid color, contemporary form and material, and a noble expression with an ignoble subject. His first public work, “Three-Way Plug”, was commissioned by Oberlin College with support from a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
“Oldenburg’s trick was never to diminish everyday life - he enlarged it until we were forced to see it.”
In 1970, Oldenburg’s retrospective traveled to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where he met curator Coosje van Bruggen. They began working together in 1976, married in 1977, and from 1981 he signed works with both names. Together they created over 40 public works. Their first collaboration was “Trowel I” from 1971, which was reworked for the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo. With architect Frank Gehry, they created “Toppling Ladder With Spilling Paint” at Loyola Law School in 1986 and “Giant Binoculars” at Venice Beach in 1991. Van Bruggen died on January 10, 2009, and Oldenburg continued working until his own death in 2022.
Oldenburg on the wall: how to translate a sculpture into a poster
Sculpture is three-dimensional, and that’s the main challenge when you want to bring Oldenburg’s spirit to a flat surface. What survives the translation are the three things that were always part of his art: a recognizable everyday object, a clean, bold color, and a touch of humor. That’s why graphic pop art motifs work best, with a single object standing out against a solid-color background. Bozetto’s collection of Popular Culture – pop art posters features just these kinds of motifs, and you’ll find cleaner, more shape-driven options in the graphic posters collection.
Size makes a big difference. A 50x70 above a sideboard or dresser gives the motif enough presence to be seen from across the room. If you want to hang several, choose three 30x40 posters with the same background color and space them five to eight centimeters apart, so the eye reads them as a series, just as Oldenburg lined up goods in The Store. Humorous motifs work well in the hallway and dining area, where people pass by quickly and smile at them each time.
Tip: Choose a single everyday object as the main motif, such as an ice cream, a lipstick, or an iron, and keep the rest of the wall simple. One bold pop art motif is more than enough. Put it in a simple black or white frame so the color can do the work, and consider hanging the motif a little lower than you might first think, roughly at eye level for someone standing.
Pop art, humor, and color: Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Oldenburg on the same wall
Oldenburg belonged to the first generation of pop art, alongside artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. We’ve written about both: in the Warhol guide, we explore the line behind the image, and in the Lichtenstein guide, we explain the Ben-Day dots. For the bigger picture, check out our dedicated guide to pop art as an interior design style.
The most common question is how to mix them. The rule is the same as for Oldenburg’s own arrangements: one dominant color, such as red or yellow, repeated across all the images, and muted surroundings. Don’t make all the images the same size, and don’t make them all equally loud. Instead, mix one large, colorful poster with two small black-and-white ones, giving the eye somewhere to rest. If you want the humor in the image rather than the color, explore our humorous posters, and among artworks by famous artists you’ll find the classic references.
One final tip is to respect the scale between the room and the image. In a small room, a smaller pop art image with plenty of white space works better than a large one that presses against the ceiling. In a large room, a 70x100 image with a single, simple shape can become the room’s focal point, just as an Oldenburg sculpture becomes the focal point of a square.
Room by room: where Oldenburg’s everyday motifs work best
Since Oldenburg himself drew his subjects from bathrooms, desks, and dining tables, it makes sense to hang posters in his spirit in rooms where those objects belong. In the dining area, an ice cream, a hamburger, or a slice of cake in a bold color can turn everyday food into art, and because you sit down and look at the same surface for a long time, the image can be a little more detailed. In the kitchen, a small 21x30 image works on an empty tiled wall or above the counter, as long as it’s behind glass or acrylic and not right next to the stove.
In the hallway, the opposite applies. You pass through quickly, and the image has to be understood in a second. Choose a single object against a solid-colored background, such as a key, a shoe, or a pair of glasses, in 30x40 or 50x70. In a study or home office, a playful poster offers a much-needed resting place for the eyes, and for a teenager’s room, pop art is one of the few styles both children and parents can accept. The bedroom is the room where I’d be most cautious: choose a muted pop art image in pastel or black and white, so the humor doesn’t wake up before you do.
Also consider the light. Pop art relies on saturated colors, and direct sunlight fades both pigments and paper over time. So hang the artwork on a wall that doesn’t get direct morning sun, or choose a frame with UV-protective glass. It’s a small price to pay to keep the colors looking just as vibrant when the exhibition opens in Zürich as they did when you bought the poster.
Frequently asked questions about Claes Oldenburg and pop art posters
Would you like to bring a little of Oldenburg’s playfulness into your room before the exhibition opens? Explore our pop art posters, choose a single striking everyday object, and pair it with a frame that lets the color speak. Then your wall becomes its own little “Store,” where the ordinary can be extraordinary.