Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks
A colossal lipstick on tank treads, this Pop Art icon began as a protest and is now a celebrated Yale landmark.
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Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks
Best Time
Best light for photos
Highlights
Must-see attractions
A colossal lipstick on tank treads, this Pop Art icon began as a protest and is now a celebrated Yale landmark.
"A paradox in aluminum and steel: revolutionary art transformed into a campus institution."
📸 Capture the Contrast
Photograph the striking juxtaposition of the lipstick and tank treads for a unique shot. :camerawithflash:
💡 Understand the History
Learn about its protest origins to fully appreciate its artistic and political significance. 📚
Quick Facts
Highlights
Discover the most iconic attractions and experiences
The Lipstick Itself
Beinecke Plaza
A 24-foot-tall lipstick in vibrant crimson-orange, a striking symbol of Pop Art.
Tank Treads
Base of the sculpture
Massive steel treads that contrast sharply with the feminine form of the lipstick.
Juxtaposition of Forms
Entire sculpture
The unexpected fusion of beauty product and military hardware creates a powerful visual statement.
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Planning Your Visit
A Monument to Dissent
From Provocation to Patrimony
Best Times
Insider Tips
from TikTok, Instagram & Reddit
📸 Capture the Contrast
Photograph the striking juxtaposition of the lipstick and tank treads for a unique shot. :camerawithflash:
💡 Understand the History
Learn about its protest origins to fully appreciate its artistic and political significance. 📚
🚶♂️ Explore Morse College
The sculpture is located at Morse College, known for its epic architecture. :college_uniform:
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from all over the internet
📸 Capture the Contrast
Photograph the striking juxtaposition of the lipstick and tank treads for a unique shot. :camerawithflash:
💡 Understand the History
Learn about its protest origins to fully appreciate its artistic and political significance. 📚
🚶♂️ Explore Morse College
The sculpture is located at Morse College, known for its epic architecture. :college_uniform:
What Travellers Say
Reviews Summary
Visitors find the Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks to be a visually striking and historically significant piece of Pop Art. Its unique juxtaposition of a lipstick and tank treads is consistently praised, though some note its transition from a protest symbol to a campus landmark. The sculpture's scale and artistic merit are widely appreciated.
"In a quiet corner of Yale's campus sits a paradox in aluminum and steel: Claes Oldenburg's mammoth lipstick mounted on tank treads, its revolutionary roar now reduced to a purr. Once deployed as artistic guerrilla warfare during the Vietnam era, this 24-foot sculpture has completed the journey from provocation to institution.
When student activists and Oldenburg secretly installed this cosmetic colossus on Beinecke Plaza in 1969, they weren't creating an Instagram backdrop. They were staging an aesthetic interventional complete with an inflatable vinyl tip that suggested both masculine aggression and feminine allure. The work was deliberate blasphemy against war and academic orthodoxy.
Today, Morse College's brutalist architecture frames the permanently installed sculpture, its vinyl replaced by durable materials, its confrontational stance repositioned to courtyard decoration. The university has expertly performed the alchemy of transforming protest into patrimony.
Yet the visual power persists. The crimson-orange lipstick remains startling against rust-colored treads and stone surroundings. The juxtaposition still resonates; beauty product meets military hardware, consumer culture fused with instruments of destruction. As Pop Art, it continues to demonstrate how everyday objects, magnified and recontextualized, reveal our cultural preoccupations.
Students lounge nearby, likely unaware they're studying beside Vietnam-era subversion. Future defense contractors and cosmetics executives alike pose with this protest symbol before entering industries it once critiqued. The military-industrial and beauty-industrial complexes find unexpected communion in this weathered emblem of dissent.
Would 1969 Oldenburg recognize his creation now? Revolutionary art often surrenders its bite for longevity; Sex Pistols as elevator music, Banksy prints in suburban homes, and Oldenburg's war machine/makeup applicator as campus landmark.
Nevertheless, essential tensions remain. The treads retain their menace; the lipstick still evokes both sexuality and superficiality. Its scale forces engagement with the ordinary made extraordinary. Even declawed, it addresses our contradictory relationship with militarism, consumerism, and gender.
This is revolutionary art's afterlife – celebrated yet defanged. Yale's lipstick-tank stands as both triumphant survivor and cautionary tale about institutions absorbing criticism through aesthetic rehabilitation. Perhaps some spark of its original disruption awaits rediscovery, ready to inspire the next generation of artistic insurgents."
Jeremy Edmunds
"Morse College is the most EPIC college therefore this statue is the best."
Gustavo T
"Its okay"
Finnian Agnew
What People Like
What People Dislike
Frequently Asked Questions
🚇 🗺️ Getting There
The sculpture is located at Yale University, specifically at Morse College. You can reach Yale's campus via public transportation or by car. Parking can be challenging, so consider using ride-sharing services or walking from nearby parking garages.
Yes, Yale University is well-served by public buses. Check local transit schedules for routes that stop near the campus.
While you can drive to Yale's campus, direct access to the sculpture's immediate vicinity might be restricted due to campus pedestrian zones. It's best to park and walk.
🎫 🎫 Tickets & Entry
No, the sculpture is an outdoor installation on Yale's campus and is freely accessible to the public.
As it's an outdoor public artwork, you can view it at any time. However, visiting during daylight hours is recommended for the best viewing experience.
Yale's campus is generally open to the public without an admission fee. Specific buildings or museums may have their own entry requirements.
📸 📸 Photography
The best light for photography is typically during the golden hours – shortly after sunrise or before sunset. Midday sun can create harsh shadows.
Generally, outdoor photography is permitted. However, always be mindful of students and faculty and avoid intrusive photography.
Experiment with low angles to emphasize the scale of the lipstick and treads, or try capturing it within the context of the surrounding architecture.
🎫 🏛️ Art & History
The sculpture was created by the renowned Pop Art artist Claes Oldenburg.
Originally installed as a protest piece in 1969 during the Vietnam War era, it symbolized dissent against war and academic orthodoxy.
It's a powerful juxtaposition of consumer culture (lipstick) and military hardware (tank treads), reflecting societal contradictions.
While its revolutionary bite has softened as it became an institutionalized landmark, the inherent tension between its elements still resonates.
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