  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.
  
  
  Title
  Giant Three-Way Plug
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1970
  
  Artist
  Claes Oldenburg
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1929 - 2022
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Mahogany veneer over wood
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 58 1/2 × 38 3/4 × 29 1/2 inches (148.6 × 98.4 × 74.9 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Sculpture
  
  
  Department
  Contemporary Art after 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, Friends of Modern Art Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  71.7
  
  
  Copyright
  © Claes Oldenburg, Courtesy of Pace Gallery
