PARIS CIRCUS NEW YORK JUNK: JEAN DUBUFFET AND CLAES OLDENBURG, 1959–1962

This article explores the artistic relation between Jean Dubuffet and Claes Oldenburg, attentive to the shifts in the critical reception of Dubuffet in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The essay focuses on Oldenburg's two major early environments, The Street and The Store, arguing that Oldenburg anticipated his critical reception by claiming the influence of Dubuffet over his work and turning this into a creative tool. In the process, Oldenburg transposed and ultimately rewrote Dubuffet's postwar vision of the ‘common man’ in the context of early pop art. Dubuffet's Paris Circus paintings from 1961–62 are briefly discussed in order to underscore a concept of influence as productive anachronism.