Appreciation: For sculptor Claes Oldenburg, art was the soul of Pop
LOS ANGELES — For more than a quarter-century, a Claes Oldenburg sculpture stood as a side-street landmark in West Hollywood. An enormous stainless-steel knife blade, 6 feet tall and 12 feet long, sliced down from the roof of a vernacular building on North Hilldale Avenue, jutting out toward the street.
The shiny silver blade, cutting through the center of the facade, curled back sheets of gray stucco on both sides. The composition looked like the prow of a ship moving steadily ahead through water.
Or, like a cake being sliced, as the artist told L.A.
