Soft Rotating Capitol

Like his famous “soft sculptures,” this six colour lithograph titled, Soft Rotating Capitol, by Pop artist Claes Oldenburg humorously toys with aesthetic categories by transforming a familiar object into a fleshy and sagging form. Here, Washington DC’s Capitol Building – a national landmark and icon of American neoclassicism architecture – becomes a flaccid pile of architectural elements. As with many of Oldenburg’s sculptures, Soft Rotating Capitol is pregnant with sexual connotations. The overall form is both phallic and scatological, and the cherry-like cupola on top may be a nod to his public sculpture Spoonbridge and Cherry. This limited edition print is sign and numbered (19/100) by the artist. Published in 1995 by Derriere L’Etolie Studios in New York this print is 22″ x 17″ matted.