Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen at the Whitney

We don't usually issue ultimatums in our posts, but here goes: We double-triple-dog dare you to look at Claes Oldenburg's soft sculptures --- made from plastic and frequently depicting 1950s suburban ephemera --- and not burst out laughing. An ashtray overflows, fries sag under ketchup, an ice bag wheezes up and down (via some kind of hidden but loud mechanism). Any seriousness or cultural commentary gets overshadowed by the sheer nuttiness. The musical instruments and drawings he did with his wife, Coosje van Bruggen, currently on display at the Whitney, are less whimsical, perhaps because the former is made from felt and the latter from paper. At any rate, we think there should be more chuckling, guffawing, and giggling happening in galleries.

Photo: thanks