Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks is a weathering steel sculpture by Claes Oldenburg. It is currently located in the Yale University Art Gallery sculpture garden, at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut.
History Stuart Wrede and a group of fellow Yale architecture students raised money under the name of the Colossal Keepsake Corporation of Connecticut, working in collaboration with Oldenburg, who charged no fee for his work. The piece was installed on the campus on May 15, 1969, in Beinecke Plaza, as a speakers' platform for anti-war protests.Yale Alumni Magazine: "Claes Oldenburg’s Lipstick", (Feb 2000) (In the autumn of 1969, women were admitted to Yale University, leading some to view the sculpture as a symbol of female empowerment and coeducation.)
The original iteration had a soft, inflated lipstick section, and wooden treads.Frieze Magazine, "Tom Burr" The Yale Herald, "Sculptures at Yale: Not just for peeing on" The sculpture deteriorated and was removed by Oldenburg in March 1970. It was redone in weathering steel and fiberglass, and reinstalled at Morse College, on October 17, 1974. As of 2019, Wrede was leading an effort to move the piece back to its original location in Beinecke Plaza. It was moved to the Yale University Art Gallery's sculpture garden in December 2025 after being vandalized.
Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks has been shown at the Guggenheim MuseumOldenburg: "An Anthology, Large-Scale Projects""Claes Oldenburg, An Anthology – Events & Publications" and National Gallery of Art.NGA, "Claes Oldenburg: An Anthology", (02/1995)
See also List of works by Oldenburg and van Bruggen
References
External links http://restoringpublicpossessions.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/lipstick-ascending-on-caterpillar-tracks-1969-1974/ https://dumboartscenter.blogspot.com/2011/06/secret-garden-party-ii-sneak-peak-1.html