Coosje van Bruggen facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Coosje van Bruggen
van Bruggen and her husband, Claes Oldenburg
Born	Jacoba Wilhelmina Hendrika van Bruggen (1942-06-06)June 6, 1942 Groningen, Netherlands
Died	January 10, 2009(2009-01-10) (aged 66) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality	Dutch American (from 1993)
Known for	Sculpture
Notable work	List of public art by Oldenburg and van Bruggen
Spouse(s)	Paul Kapteyn ​ (before 1977)​ Claes Oldenburg ​ (m. 1977)​

Coosje van Bruggen (born June 6, 1942 – died January 10, 2009) was a talented artist. She was born in the Netherlands and later became an American citizen. Coosje was a sculptor, someone who studies art history, and an art critic. She is best known for working closely with her husband, Claes Oldenburg, on many amazing sculptures.

About Coosje van Bruggen's Life

Coosje van Bruggen was born in Groningen, a city in the Netherlands. Her father was a doctor. She went to the University of Groningen to study art history.

From 1967 to 1971, Coosje worked at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. This is a famous museum where she helped with art projects. She also worked with other artists who created art for specific places, like Doug Wheeler.

Coosje married her first husband, Paul Kapteyn, and they had two children, Maartje and Paulus. Later, she taught art at the Academy for Art and Industries until 1976.

In 1977, she married her second husband, the famous sculptor Claes Oldenburg. The next year, she moved to New York in the United States. In 1993, she officially became a citizen of the U.S.

Coosje van Bruggen's Art and Work

Coosje van Bruggen started working with her husband, Claes Oldenburg, in 1976. Their first project together was helping to set up a huge sculpture called Trowel I at the Kröller-Müller Museum.

Together, Coosje and Claes created many large, public sculptures over three decades. Coosje called these their "Large-Scale Projects." Their first big team artwork was Flashlight (1981), a giant outdoor sculpture at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.

One of their most famous works is Spoonbridge and Cherry (1988). This fun sculpture was made for the Walker Art Center and is now a permanent part of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. It has become a well-known symbol of the city of Minneapolis.

They also designed Collar and Bow for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. It was a huge sculpture shaped like a shirt collar and bow tie, but it was never built because it was too difficult and expensive. Their last joint artwork was Tumbling Tacks (2009), created for the Kistefos Museum in Norway.

Coosje also encouraged them to create art that was placed inside buildings and even performance art. In 1985, they worked with architect Frank Gehry on a performance piece in Venice, Italy, called Il Corso del Coltello (meaning "The Course of the Knife").

Besides creating art, Coosje van Bruggen was also an independent art critic and curator starting in the early 1980s. She wrote articles for Artforum magazine and taught sculpture at Yale University School of Art.

She wrote important books and essays about other famous modern artists like Gerhard Richter and John Baldessari. She also wrote a book about Frank Gehry's amazing Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Coosje and Claes lived in New York for many years. They also spent time working in Los Angeles and, since 1992, at a château in France.

Another well-known sculpture they made in the U.S. is Cupid's Span. This fiberglass and steel artwork looks like a giant bow and arrow. It was placed in Rincon Park along the Embarcadero in San Francisco in 2002.

In 2021, the Pace Gallery held an exhibition showing the artworks Coosje van Bruggen created with Claes Oldenburg from the 1980s to the late 2000s.

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  Bottle O'Notes (Middlesbrough)

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  Flying Pins (2000), Eindhoven

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  Houseball, Berlin

Awards and Recognition

Coosje van Bruggen and Claes Oldenburg received many awards for their art. Some of these include:

• Distinction in Sculpture from the Sculpture Center, New York (1994)
• Nathaniel S. Saltonstall Award from the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (1996)
• Partners in Education Award from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2002)
• The Medal Award from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2004)

They also received honorary degrees from several universities, including the California College of the Arts (1996) and the University of Teesside (1999).

The Pace Gallery in New York now represents Coosje van Bruggen's artistic legacy.

Coosje van Bruggen's Passing

Coosje van Bruggen passed away in Los Angeles in 2009 at the age of 66. She had been battling breast cancer for a long time.

Selected Sculptures by Oldenburg and van Bruggen

Here are some of the notable sculptures created by Coosje van Bruggen and Claes Oldenburg:

• 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

See also

• Women in the art history field