Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen American, born 1929, Sweden / American, born 1942, The Netherlands Typewriter Eraser, Scale X, 1999 stainless steel and cement Gift of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation 1998.150.1

In the mid-1960s Claes Oldenburg began to make drawings of monuments based on common objects, such as a clothespin or a pair of scissors, challenging the notion that public monuments must commemorate historical figures or events. The artist's selection of discredited or obsolete objects extends to those remembered from childhood. As a youngster he enjoyed playing in his father's office with a typewriter eraser. In the late 1960s and 1970s he used the eraser as a source for drawings, prints, sculpture, and even a never-realized monument for New York City. This sculpture presents a giant falling eraser that has just alighted, the bristles of the brush turned upward in a graceful, dynamic gesture. (1 of 17)