Tube Being Stepped On

As one of the foremost Pop artists of the 1960s and 1970s, Claes Oldenburg created oversized sculptures inspired by everyday objects. This drawing is a proposal for a public sculpture on the Yale University campus, surreptitiously commissioned by art students. A tube of paint is rendered four times in various states of compression. Written on the second tube from the top is the word “sole,” suggesting the weight of a giant shoe is causing paint to squirt with comical thrust into the air.

For Oldenburg, the tube is a symbol for the artist “who takes off his cap and oozes out his content.” By exaggerating its scale and color, he cleverly elevates the self-described “heroic tube” to the level of a colossal monument.