Coosje van Bruggen (June 6, 1942 – January 10, 2009) was a Dutch-born American sculptor, art historian, and critic.Kino, Carol. January 13, 2009

''

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''. She collaborated extensively with her husband,

Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...

Biography

Born to a physician in Groningen, van Bruggen studied history of art at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

. From 1967 to 1971, she worked at the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

in Amsterdam. Van Bruggen married her first husband Paul Kapteyn, they had two children, Maartje Kapteyn and Paulus Kapteyn. In Amsterdam she worked with environmental artists like Doug Wheeler, Larry Bell, and the members of the Dutch avant-garde. Until 1976, van Bruggen taught at the ''Academy for Art and Industries'' in

Enschede Enschede (; known as in the local Twents dialect) is a municipality and city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region. The eastern parts of the urban area reaches the border of the German city of Gronau ...

. She married her second husband, Claes Oldenburg, in 1977 and moved to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

the following year. In 1993 she became a United States citizen.

Work

She began working with her new husband, sculptor

, in 1976. Her first work with Oldenburg came when she helped him install his 41-foot ''Trowel I'' on the grounds of the

Kröller-Müller Museum The Kröller-Müller Museum () is a national art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of her ...

in Otterlo.Suzanne Muchnich (January 13, 2009)
"Coosje van Bruggen dies at 66; art historian made sculptures with husband Claes Oldenburg"
''

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''. Together Oldenburg and van Bruggen produced three decades of monumental sculpture that van Bruggen would call Large-Scale Projects,Richard Lacayo (January 13, 2009)
Coosje van Bruggen: 1942-2009
'' Time)''. with their first piece created as a team being ''Flashlight'' (1981), a huge outdoor sculpture at the

University of Nevada The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant ...

, Las Vegas. In Los Angeles, ''Collar and Bow'' - a 65-foot metal and fiberglass sculpture in the shape of a man's dress shirt collar and bow tie, designed for a spot outside

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Ave ...

was stalled and eventually canceled due to technical problems and escalating costs. In 1988, her work with Oldenburg entitled '' Spoonbridge and Cherry'' was commissioned by the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, t ...

. It became a permanent fixture of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden as well as an iconic image of the city of

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. Their final joint work, fabricated in Turin, Italy and titled ''Tumbling Tacks'' (2009), was designed for the

Kistefos Sculpture Park The Kistefos Museum (Norwegian: ''Kistefos-Museet'') is a contemporary art museum and sculpture park located in Jevnaker, Norway. The art park first opened to the public in 1996 with an exhibition of 25 sculptures. Founded by Christen Sveaas, t ...

in the countryside north of Oslo. At her instigation, the couple branched out into indoor installation and performance art. In 1985 they collaborated on ''Il Corso del Coltello'' (“The Course of the Knife”), a performance piece in Venice, Italy, with the architect

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considered ...

, whom van Bruggen had met in 1982 when she was on the selection committee for ''

documenta 7 ''documenta 7'' was the seventh edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 19 June and 28 October 1982 in Kassel, West Germany. The artistic director was Rudi Fuchs Rudolf Herman "Rudi" Fuchs (born ...

'' in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

. Since the early 1980s van Bruggen worked as an independent critic and curator. She contributed articles to ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

'' magazine from 1983 to 1988, and served as senior critic in the sculpture department at

Yale University School of Art The Yale School of Art is the art school of Yale University. Founded in 1869 as the first professional fine arts school in the United States, it grants Masters of Fine Arts degrees to students completing a two-year course in graphic design, painti ...

in 1996–97. Van Bruggen was the author of scholarly books and essays on the work of major contemporary artists including

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary German ...

(1985),

John Baldessari John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California. Initially a painter, ...

(1990),

Bruce Nauman Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico. Life and work ...

(1991), and

Hanne Darboven Hanne Darboven (29 April 1941 – 9 March 2009) was a German conceptual artist, best known for her large-scale minimalist installations consisting of handwritten tables of numbers. Early life and career Darboven was born in 1941 in Munich. She gr ...

(1991). She also wrote a monograph on architect

Frank O. Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considered ...

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The museum was inaugurated on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Spa ...

, Spain. Van Bruggen and Oldenburg were based in New York for many years, but they also lived and worked for extensive periods in Los Angeles and, since 1992, at Château de la Borde in

Beaumont-sur-Dême Beaumont-sur-Dême () is a commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays de la Loire in north-western France. See also *Communes of the Sarthe department The following is a list of the 354 communes of the Sarthe department of France. ...

, in the Loire Valley of France. One U.S. installation the pair collaborated on is the fiberglass and steel '' Cupid's Span'', which was commissioned by GAP founders

Donald Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

and Doris F. Fisher, and installed in the newly built Rincon Park along the Embarcadero in San Francisco in 2002. In 2021, Pace Gallery presented an exhibition of van Bruggen's collaborative work with Claes Oldenburg spanning the 1980s to the late 2000s. Claes Oldenburg's Bottle O' Notes.jpg, ''Bottle O'Notes'' (Middlesbrough) FlyingPins.jpg, ''Flying Pins'' (2000), Eindhoven Houseball (Berlin-Mitte 2013) 1220-1100-(120).jpg, ''Houseball'', Berlin

Awards

Together with Oldenburg, van Bruggen received numerous awards including the Distinction in Sculpture, Sculpture Center, New York (1994); Nathaniel S. Saltonstall Award, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (1996); Partners in Education Award,

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

, New York (2002); the Medal Award,

School of the Museum of Fine Arts The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachus ...

, Boston (2004) and honorary degrees from the

California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in San ...

, San Francisco, California (1996);

University of Teesside , mottoeng = Deeds Not Words , established = 1930 – Constantine Technical College1969 – as Teesside Polytechnic 1992 – gained university status , type = Public , endowment = £0.23 m (2019/20) , chancellor ...

, Middlesbrough, England (1999);

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design or NSCAD, is a public art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. The uni ...

, Halifax, Nova Scotia (2005); and the

College for Creative Studies College for Creative Studies (CCS) is a private art school in Detroit, Michigan. It enrolls more than 1,400 students and focuses on arts education. The college is also active in offering art education to children through its Community Arts Part ...

in Detroit, Michigan (2005). The estate of van Bruggen is represented by The

Pace Gallery The Pace Gallery is an American contemporary and modern art gallery with 9 locations worldwide. It was founded in Boston by Arne Glimcher in 1960. His son, Marc Glimcher, is now president and CEO. Pace Gallery operates in New York, London, Hong ...

, New York.

Death

After a long battle with

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

, van Bruggen died at her residence in Los Angeles in 2009, aged 66.

Sculptures

* ''Pool Balls'' (1977),

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...

* ''Spitzhacke'' (1982),

* ''Gartenschlauch'' (1983),

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...

* ''Screwarch'' (1983),

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

* ''Cross section of a Toothbrush with Paste, in a Cup, on a Sink: Portrait of Coosje's Thinking'' (1983),

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, i ...

* ''Balancing Tools'' (1984),

Weil am Rhein Weil am Rhein (High Alemannic: ''Wiil am Rhii'') is a German town and commune. It is on the east bank of the River Rhine, and extends to the point at which the Swiss, French and German borders meet. It is the most southwesterly town in Germany an ...

* ''Knife Ship I'' (1985),

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

* '' Spoonbridge and Cherry'' (1988),

* ''Bicyclette Ensevelie'' (1990)

Parc de la Villette The Parc de la Villette is the third-largest park in Paris, in area, located at the northeastern edge of the city in the 19th arrondissement. The park houses one of the largest concentrations of cultural venues in Paris, including the Cité de ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

* '' Free Stamp'' (1991) Willard Park,

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

* ''Mistos'' (1992),

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

* ''Bottle of Notes'' (1993),

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

* '' Inverted Collar and Tie'' (1994),

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

* ''Houseball'' (1996),

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

* ''Torn Notebook'' (1996),

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...

* ''Lion's Tail'' (1999),

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

* '' Ago, Filo e Nodo'' (2000),

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

* ''Flying Pins'' (2000),

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

* ''Cupid's Span'' (2002),

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

* ''Spiral'' (2006),

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

* ''Clothespin'' (1976),

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

* ''Split Button'' (1981),

References

External links

*
Website Oldenburg and van Bruggen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruggen, Coosje van 1942 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American women artists 20th-century Dutch sculptors 20th-century Dutch women artists American women sculptors Dutch emigrants to the United States Dutch contemporary artists People from Groningen (city) Deaths from breast cancer Deaths from cancer in California Women art historians American art historians American women historians 21st-century American sculptors 21st-century American women artists