Small Plug

In the decades between the early 1900s and today, Oberlin became an avid supporter of modern and contemporary artists. The drawings in this case, the two above it, and the Mangold and Michels works on the opposite wall celebrate Oberlin as an advocate for the arts, highlighting works that were commissioned specifically for Oberlin. Oldenburg's site-specific Giant Three-Way Plug sculpture can be seen to this day on the south side of the museum; it was the artist's first large-scale outdoor sculptural work. Here, the artist whimsically imagines such a plug inserted into Thomas Edison's house.