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Giant Three-Way Plug (Cube Tap) 1970 Claes Oldenburg (American (born Sweden), 1929–2022) Claes Oldenburg gained notoriety in the early 1960s when he opened “The Store” in New York, where he blurred the distinction between art and commerce by selling painted replicas of everyday items.
Giant Three-Way Electric Plug. Date: 1970. Artist: Claes Oldenburg (American (born Sweden), 1929–2022) Medium: Cherrywood. Dimensions: 58 inches × 39 inches × 28 1/2 inches (147.3 × 99.1 × 72.4 cm)
A monumental enlargement of a three-way electrical plug with an octagonal body and cylindrical side plugs, this figment of Oldenburg's Brobdingnagian imagination faces downward, safely above the viewer's head.
Set in the context of the museum, Oldenburg’s plug acts as an obstacle to contemplative viewing. Suspended on a single, metal string from the ceiling, the Giant Three-Way Plug looms large above the heads of viewers, with its prominent cast shadow only enhancing the drama of the experience.
System of Iconography - Plug, Mouse, Good Humor, Lipstick, Switches. Claes Oldenburg.
Claes Oldenburg created his monumental sculpture Giant Three-Way Plug in 1970. He viewed the piece as a coming together of the mechanical and the organic, and he anticipated the evolution of its patina as a reflection of the” events of nature” around it.
Claes Oldenburg's first commissioned permanent outdoor sculpture, Giant Three-Way Plug, comprises a 3.5-ton Cor-Ten steel body with polished bronze prongs.
