(Oldenburg, Claes). MULTIPLES IN RETROSPECT - 1964-1990, WITH THE MULTIPLE "THE SOAP AT BATON ROUGE" by Claes Oldenburg. Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, 1990. Limited edition of 250 copies, signed by CLaes Oldenburg and numbered 216/250. Folio, cloth covered box, with title and stylized Mickey Mouse figures on cover, containing the book, 4to., cloth, 160pp., text and 142 illustrations, 94 in color, describing and illustrating all of Oldenburg's multiples, and a multiple created especially for the city of Cincinnati (see the artist's statement about this work, below), consisting of a cast resin sculpture in the form of a bar of Ivory Soap, 7/16 x 4 3/4 x 2 3/4 inches, 1.1 x 12.1 x 7 cm., incised with the artist's initialed and numbered to correspond with each book. The multiple rests on a plastic padding, designed to resemble the river, and is covered with a sheet of clear plastc adorned with materials designed to resemble river detritus. The actual project which inspired this multiple was not carried out. Prospectus and Artist's Statement laid in. Exceptionally Fine throughout. Artist's Statement: THE SOAP AT BATON ROUGE When Carl Solway called me in May 1972 and asked if I would be interested in proposing a large-scale work for Cincinnati, he mentioned that partial funding for such a work might be sought from the Proctor & Gamble Corporation, whose world headquarters are in that city. The most familiar product of that company is the bar of pure white soap we all grew up with - IVORY - embossed with its name on top. Its slogan - "it floats- advertises one of its unique properties, a property it has in common with balloons and ships. What sprang to mind almost immediately, given the location of Cincinnati on the Ohio River, was the combination of a floating soap bar and an old-fashioned, paddle-wheel riverboat - in other words, a colossal bar of Ivory soap. I proposed to Carl that a colossal soap be made by Proctor & Gamble and launched in Cincinnati with appropriate ceremony. It would thereafter float down the Ohio River, stopping at towns along the way. Carl thought the event could be coordinated with celebrations of the Bicentennial in 1976. Another property of Ivory soap, however, had to be taken into account: its tendency to dissolve, which it does rather more quickly than other soaps. As the colossal soap moved from town to town, it would grow smaller, like t
