Lipstick chronicles

Mark Alden Branch ’86

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Mark Alden Branch ’86

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Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks (above at right)—a.k.a. the Lipstick—has settled into its new home, the Yale University Art Gallery sculpture garden. The sculpture by Claes Oldenburg ’50 was initially installed in 1969 on Beinecke Plaza, where it became a platform for antiwar protests. It has spent the last 50 years in the Morse College courtyard, an informal mascot. It was reinstalled in the Morse courtyard last year after a few months of conservation work, but outgoing head of Morse Catherine Panter-Brick announced the move to YUAG late in 2025 after graffiti was found etched into its surface.  

Alexander Calder’s 1960 Gallows and Lollipops (above at left), which stood on Beinecke Plaza from 1976 to 2022, is a nearby neighbor.