M. Mouse (with) 1 Ear (equals) Tea Bag Blackboard Version (1965)

Date1973

Maker Claes Oldenburg American, 1929 - 2022

Label TextThese works convey how a single form conjured different possibilities and meanings for the artist. He associated the head of Mickey Mouse with a tea bag but also thought of its reduced geometric shape as an old-fashioned film camera. In the shape of a camera, Mickey Mouse was both the character and its container. He later turned the shape into an exhibition structure called the Mouse Museum in which Oldenburg showed everyday objects he collected and arranged in non-hierarchical order. Visitors entered the mouse and walked past a vitrine that looped along the perimeter like a movie.

Object number76.87.19

Photo CreditPhoto: Elizabeth Mann

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, New York Collection for Stockholm: Portfolio of Prints, Mar. 17 - May 15, 1977. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Pop Departures. Oct. 9, 2014 - Jan. 11, 2015. Text by Catharina Manchanda, et al. No cat. no., p. 102, not reproduced.

Credit LineGift of Robert Rauschenberg

Dimensions9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm), image and sheet size

MediumLithograph and two-color silkscreen, hand dusted with chalk on paper