Lipstick On Caterpillar Tracks

Lipstick On Caterpillar Tracks

Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks, 1969-74
Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929; B.A. 1950)
Location: Morse College Courtyard

Swedish-born conceptual artist Claes Oldenburg began proposing large-scale sculptures of everyday objects in the 1960s in the spirit of Andy Warhol’s tongue-in-cheek pop art tributes to American consumer culture. Amidst nationwide free speech and antiwar protests, a group of Yale School of Architecture students and faculty, dubbing themselves the Colossal Keepsake Corporation of Connecticut, envisioned the creation of one of these monuments on campus as a revolutionary aesthetic and political statement. A rally celebrated the Lipstick’s first installation on Beinecke Plaza in 1969, where its aggressive presence disrupted the public space. Intended as a platform for public speakers, the sculpture was made of inexpensive materials: plywood tracks and a red vinyl balloon tip, meant to be inflated for visibility. Vandalism and deterioration led to the work’s removal; it was ultimately refurbished in cor-ten steel, aluminum, and fiberglass and installed at Morse College in 1974. Gift of the Colossal Keepsake Corporation, 1974

Lipstick On Caterpillar Tracks

Samuel F. B. Morse College, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Cor-Ten steel, steel, aluminum, cast resin; painted with polyurethane enamel
23 ft. 6 in. x 24 ft. 11 in. x 10 ft. 11 in. (7.2 x 7.6 x 3.3 m)
Sited: 33 x 37 x 56 ft. (10.1 x 11.38 x 17.1 m)
Commissioned January 1969 by Stuart Wrede and students at the Yale School of Architecture
Originally installed May 15, 1969, in Beinecke Plaza (Hewitt Quadrangle), Yale University
Installed and inaugurated October 17, 1974
Photo: Attilio Maranzano