Collection Giant Three-Way Plug

Giant Three-Way Plug

Claes Oldenburg American, 1929 - 2022
Not On View
Giant Three-Way Plug
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About the Artwork

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. In 1965 the artist built a three-way plug from cardboard, remembering that lying awake as a child he had imagined plugs, light switches, and faucets growing so big that they filled his bedroom.

Giant Three-Way Plug

1970

Claes Oldenburg

1929 - 2022

American

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Mahogany veneer over wood

Overall: 58 1/2 × 38 3/4 × 29 1/2 inches (148.6 × 98.4 × 74.9 cm)

Sculpture

Contemporary Art after 1950

Founders Society Purchase, Friends of Modern Art Fund

71.7

Non-commercial all standard museum

Markings

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Provenance

the artist;
(Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, New York, USA);
1971-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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Published References

Haskell, Barbara. "Claes Oldenburg: Object into Monument." Pasadena, 1971, pp. 115, 117 (ill.).

Bulletin of the DIA 50, no. 4 (1971): pp. 69-78, (ill. on back cover).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

© Claes Oldenburg, Courtesy of Pace Gallery

Claes Oldenburg, Giant Three-Way Plug, 1970, mahogany veneer over wood. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Friends of Modern Art Fund, 71.7.

Giant Three-Way Plug: Main View of Collection Gallery

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Giant Three-Way Plug
Giant Three-Way Plug
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