Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks.

Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks. Claes Oldenburg. 1969– 1974 C.E. Cor‐Ten steel,

steel, aluminum, and cast resin; painted with polyurethane enamel.

• A monumental tube of lipstick sprouting from a military vehicle; visible space for the anti-war movement while also poking fun at the solemnity of the plaza. 
• The sculpture served as a stage and backdrop for several subsequent student protests. Oldenburg and the architeciture students never intended for the original Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks sculpture to be permanent. 
• In the Yale sculpture, the artist combined the highly “feminine” product with the “masculine” machinery of war. In doing so, he playfully critiqued both the hawkish, hyper-masculine rhetoric of the military and the blatant consumerism of the United States.
• In addition to its feminine associations, the large lipstick tube is phallic and bullet-like, making the benign beauty product seem masculine or even violent. 
• The juxtaposition implied that the U.S. obsession with beauty and consumption both fueled and distracted from the ongoing violence in Vietnam.
• Intended as platform for public speakers; male and female forms unite