Cor-Ten steel, bronze
117 x 78 x 58 inches (297.2 x 198.1 x 147.3 cm)
Museum Grounds, exterior (d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David N. Pincus in memory of Anne d'Harnoncourt, 2010
1970
In the Philadelphia Museum of Art sculpture garden
(215) 763-8100
Claes Oldenburg, known for his gratuitiously inflated the scale of domestic appliances, furniture, and other everyday objects, turned his attention to the three-way plug in the 1960s.
Oldenburg constructed a large three-dimensional cardboard plug in 1965 and created versions in bronze, steel, canvas and mahogany. In 1970, Oldenburg’s plug achieved monumental stature in this Cor-Ten steel and bronze version (one of three created). The large-scale plug, which rests in the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial Sculpture Garden (1933-1961), gives the appearance of being embedded in the ground after falling from a great height.