Cast plaster and enamel, 1982, signed and numbered in enamel on base, from the edition of 35, published by the artist for Fashion MODA at Documenta 7, Kassel, Germany, overall: 195 x 75 x 80 mm (7¾ x 3 x 3¼ in.)

Claes Oldenburg’s Statement on Souvenir of Documenta 7 (Claes Oldenburg: The Multiples Store, 1996, p. 48):

‘In 1982 New York City graffiti had become a recognized art form and some of its best practitioners were invited to Documenta 7 in Kassel, Germany. Sites were provided for them, which struck me as untrue to the outlaw origin of the art form. As an alternative, I thought that some sensitive spots in the city could be coated with material that later would peel off, so that they could be temporarily graffitied. One such spot was the statue of Frederick the Great that faces the Fredericianum. I visualized it during the Documenta show looking like the smeared statue of George Washington on the Brooklyn side of the Williamsburg bridge.

This suggestion proved unworkable and, instead, a graffitied Frederick became the starting point for a multiple I had been asked to do for the Fashion MODA store located in a field near the Documenta exhibition. The store, managed by jenny Holzer and Stefan Eins, would sell varieties of New York street art such as buttons, T-shirts, and posters by Holzer, Keith Haring, and others, as well as small sculptures such as Christy Rupp’s city rats.

I photographed the original and developed a small-scale clay version with the same proportions and general silhouette, but using soft, sloppy forms because I wanted the statue to seem to be melting into paint. The paintings was done on a turntable using colors left over from the Store reliefs of the early 1960s, one color per day. As with the Store reliefs, no color was allowed to mix. Through the form of the statuettes is identical, the painting of each is unique.’