Claes Oldenburg Analysis

The artist Claes Oldenburg did his job as an artist by making people think and feel many different things when they viewed his Giant Hamburger. The art students viewed the large hamburger and they had a direct perception to the art and the art students were compelled to make their own artistic expression. The students had an immediate aesthetic view of the hamburger and soon after they had a practical view for the art even if they meant it to be satirical.

The artist himself even commented on the student protest: “This doesn’t hurt my feelings at all. My work is going to get old soon enough. Perhaps they will come my way.” Oldenburg also added: “They should have made it out of something soft.” (Claes Oldenburg from the pages of Art Gallery of Ontario 1967) No, it should not be regarded as disrespectful because the audiences interpretation of the art and their aesthetic experience and feelings about the art is just as important as the artist. How the students viewed the object is the pinnacle of respect that can be paid to the artist because they had a special focus on the giant hamburger.

Yes this can easily be seen as satire from college art students who were tired of seeing art being heralded as "sophisticated" that they perceived as being obviously ridiculous. When you see a large foam
If you have artistic taste then you can see the compliment that the bottle has to the overall art. If you don't have artistic taste then the ketchup bottle would take away from the art of the giant hamburger and make it uninteresting. If you would see the hamburger and the ketchup bottle together it would look more like a food advertisement and a lot less like art. Even if you witness a single hamburger in an art museum your mind would be conditioned to think of it as a food advertisement. With the addition of the ketchup bottle it would have no chance of being viewed upon as art by the average