Coosje van Bruggen

Coosje van Bruggen (June 6, 1942 – January 10, 2009) was a Dutch-born American sculptor, art historian, and critic. She collaborated extensively with her husband, Claes Oldenburg.

Biography Born to a physician in Groningen, van Bruggen studied history of art at the University of Groningen. From 1967 to 1971, she worked at the Stedelijk Museum 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. Together Oldenburg and van Bruggen produced three decades of monumental sculpture that van Bruggen would call Large-Scale Projects, with their first piece created as a team being Flashlight (1981), a huge outdoor sculpture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In 1988, her work with Oldenburg entitled Spoonbridge and Cherry was commissioned by the Walker Art Center. It became a permanent fixture of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden as well as an iconic image of the city of Minneapolis. Their final joint work, fabricated in Turin, Italy and titled Tumbling Tacks (2009), was designed for the Kistefos Sculpture Park in the countryside north of Oslo.

In 2021, Pace Gallery presented an exhibition of van Bruggen's collaborative work with Claes Oldenburg spanning the 1980s to the late 2000s.

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, New York (2002); the Medal Award, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2004) and honorary degrees from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, California (1996); University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, England (1999); Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia (2005); and the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan (2005).

The estate of van Bruggen is represented by The Pace Gallery, New York.

Death After a long battle with breast cancer, van Bruggen died at her residence in Los Angeles in 2009, aged 66.

Sculptures

Pool Balls (1977), Münster Spitzhacke (1982), Kassel Gartenschlauch (1983), Freiburg im Breisgau Screwarch (1983), Rotterdam Cross section of a Toothbrush with Paste, in a Cup, on a Sink: Portrait of Coosje's Thinking (1983), Krefeld Balancing Tools (1984), Weil am Rhein Knife Ship I (1985), Bilbao Spoonbridge and Cherry (1988), Minneapolis Bicyclette Ensevelie (1990) Parc de la Villette, Paris Free Stamp (1991) Willard Park, Cleveland Mistos (1992), Barcelona Bottle of Notes (1993), Middlesbrough Inverted Collar and Tie (1994), Frankfurt Houseball (1996), Berlin Torn Notebook (1996), Lincoln, Nebraska Lion's Tail (1999), Venice Ago, Filo e Nodo (2000), Milan Flying Pins (2000), Eindhoven Dropped Cone (2001), Cologne Cupid's Span (2002), San Francisco Spiral (2006), Seoul Clothespin (1976), Philadelphia Split Button (1981), Philadelphia