Claes Oldenburg was always starting from scratch
“It’s terrifying to do it this way, but it’s always a great pleasure if it works.”
Welcome to the latest issue of Subtle Maneuvers. Previously: Advice on starting projects when starting projects is hard.
Claes Oldenburg (1929–2022)
In last issue’s advice column, I quoted Philip Roth on the special difficulty of writing as a long-term prospect. “In most professions there’s a beginning, a middle, and an end,” Roth said. “With writing, it’s always beginning again.” I’ve always found this aspect of writing to be pretty frustrating, so I was interested to read over the weekend that the late artist Claes Oldenburg—who died last week at 93—said the same thing about his career but was much more sanguine about it. In 1966, Oldenburg said:
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