Geometric Mouse, Scale X 
Claes Oldenburg 

DATE
Object Date: 1971 

Conservation Date:  2022 

LOCATION
Central Library Jesse H. Jones Building 
500 McKinney St 
Houston, TX 77002 

District I   

CLIENT
City of Houston

SPONSORING DEPARTMENT
Houston Public Library

PROJECT BUDGET
$12,000.00 

Image Credit: All images courtesy of the Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs; Photographer: Alex Barber, HAA 

Project Description

Claes Oldenburg’s Geometric Mouse, Scale X – Red (1971) stands outside the public library in Houston’s Civic Center. It is made up of a square with two rectangular windows punched out for eyes, and two circles that are the mouse’s ears, with a more organic appendage that Oldenburg identified as “the nose.” Two small circulars “tear drops” attached to the end of chains trail out of the eyes.  

In 2022, HAA contracted with local sculpture conservator, Byron Kessler, for full scale conservation of the piece. The sculpture was cleaned and repainted. Additional metal pins were also fabricated to secure the two “tear drops” with attached chains to the floor to prevent further damage.   

  • At the request of Houston Public Library and the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, HAA sought quotes from three qualified conservators to repair this artwork and recommended the best course of action. Throughout the conservation process, HAA coordinated site access, progress reporting, and vendor communications. A conservation report was collected and submitted to sponsoring departments upon closeout.  

  • This project was funded through Houston’s Civic Art Ordinance, which requires 1.75% of the budget for eligible City-funded construction projects to be spent on integrating artwork and artists' ideas in public spaces and conserving the City of Houston’s Civic Art Collection. The Houston Arts Alliance administers the civic art program for the City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. 

    This artwork is under the care of the Houston Arts Foundation (HAF). HAF is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the conservation and restoration of select public artworks in Houston’s Civic Art Collection and undertakes efforts to promote, educate, and support cultural activities which bring increased awareness to the collection artworks within its Adopt-a-Monument program.  

    HAF raises and manages funds reserved for the conservation of artworks gifted or donated to the City of Houston. The Foundation also initiates programs which support the further promotion, enhancement, and further development of the visual arts in the City of Houston and surrounding areas. 

Artist Bio

Claes Oldenburg , born in Stockholm in 1929, became a citizen of the United States at the age of 16. Oldenburg was trained as an artist, and was actively involved in the Pop Art movement of the 1960's. He created and participated in a number of Happenings during that period.  

The mouse theme--the head of a mouse--began to emerge in Olden­burg's work in 1965, as a mask based on the profile of a movie projector (the reels being ears, the nose the lens), to be used in the performance piece Movey House. The form appeared the following year as the facade and plan of a museum to display objects of popular culture, The Mouse Museum. The mouse became a part of Oldenburg's personal mythology, used as a letterhead symbol for his first retrospective exhibition in 1966 at The Moderna Museum in Stockholm, and in 1969 for banners to advertise his exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Oldenburg regards the Geometric Mouse as a symbol of analysis and intellect, "autobiographical but not necessarily a portrait." 

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