After it was vandalized, Claes Oldenburg‘s beloved 1969 sculpture Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks will be relocated by Yale University from a public courtyard to the Yale University Art Gallery. The Yale Daily News, the school’s student-run newspaper, first reported on the removal this week.
The sculpture, which is typically viewable in front of the Yale-run Morse College, was reportedly vandalized in October. Officials with the school discovered the letters “ATB” written onto the base of the piece, which resembles a tall lipstick on top of tractor treads. The steel sculpture was recently been reinstalled after several months of restoration.
“ATB” is a phrase that appears to be linked to the Baker’s Dozen, an a cappella group at Yale, according to the Yale Daily News, which reported some social media posts by the troupe include those letters.
Now, the sculpture will be taken away from Morse College, though it isn’t clear whether the removal will be permanent. This time, the reason is mysterious markings found on the sculpture’s bottom.
“Overnight, the underside of the sculpture was defaced by people who etched their group initials into the metal,” Catherine Panter-Brick, head of Morse College, told the Yale Daily News. “As a result, the Yale University Art Gallery will be removing the Lipstick from the Morse courtyard for conservation and care.”
Even at a school with a rich university art collection and two well-known museums, Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks is widely considered one of the great pieces housed at Yale. The 24-foot-tall piece, which is formally owned by the Yale University Art Gallery, was produced by Oldenburg, himself a Yale alum, after he was asked to create a monument for the school. Working in secrecy, he mounted the work in 1969 by surprise, bringing on a team to assemble its parts in Beinecke Plaza. The sculpture soon became a platform for anti–Vietnam War protestors at Yale.
In a 2022 interview, Stuart Wrede, an alum of Yale’s architecture program who worked closely with Oldenburg to mount the sculpture, said, “For many it symbolized the crashing down of the gates of Yale’s male bastion as women entered the college for the first time in the fall semester of 1969. The still-fledgling gay movement also appropriated it as a symbol for its struggle. From our point of view, Oldenburg had hit the nail on its head.”
Then as now, the sculpture was also removed, initially for very different reasons. Because Oldenburg had initially constructed the lipstick portion out of inflatable vinyl, in keeping with his other “soft” sculptures now considered icons of the Pop art movement, the sculpture had a tough time weathering the elements.
Then as now, the sculpture was also vandalized, with its treads covered in graffiti. The university made the decision to take away the work, which entered the Yale University Art Gallery collection in 1974. Since then, it has been on long-term loan to Morse College.
Of the current removal, a Yale University Art Gallery spokesperson told the Yale Daily News, “The sculpture is being moved for further conservation offsite this week.”