# @hyperallergic on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DSDLRmYkj8L
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/37787480-hyperallergic-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/a3053bced0.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-12-09T16:36:08.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Hyperallergic (@hyperallergic) — https://gondola.cc/hyperallergic

## Caption

Yale’s decision to relocate a beloved Claes Oldenburg sculpture has sparked strong feelings about the late alum artist’s intentions this week. When letters were found etched on the surface of Oldenburg’s “Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks” (1969) last month, the university announced that after 50 years in the Morse College courtyard, the public work would be moved to the Yale University Art Gallery for “conservation and care.”

Oldenburg, who graduated from Yale in 1950, created the 24-foot steel sculpture in collaboration with a group of the university’s architecture students in 1969 — the same year the school began accepting women to study. It was originally installed with an inflatable lipstick crayon at the university’s Beinecke Plaza to serve as a speaking platform during a series of anti-Vietnam War protests, but after severe vandalism, Oldenburg and the students removed and refabricated it for durability before giving it back to Yale.

“I’m sorry, but I find this hilarious as a reason,” Architecture alumni Stuart Wrede — who was part of the group that commissioned Oldenburg for the project — told the Yale Daily News in response to University President Maurie McInnis citing sun protection among the reasons to move the work. 

To read the full story by rhea.nayyar, visit the link in bio.
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Late artist and Yale alumnus Claes Oldenburg's “Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks” (1969) at the Morse College courtyard on campus (photo courtesy Yale University Art Gallery) 

#Yale #ClaesOldenburg #Vandalism #Sculpture #Lipstick

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## Tags

yale, sculpture, claesoldenburg, vandalism, lipstick

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