|
| |
Sculptor, Critic and Art Historian Dies at 66
13-Jan-2009
Written by: Christine Le
Coosje van Bruggen loses battle with breast cancer.
Known for her work with her artist husband, Claes Oldenburg, on his enormous sculptures of ordinary objects, Coosje van Bruggen, an art critic, art historian and sculptor died Saturday in her Los Angeles home due to breast cancer.
Her first achievement with her husband was in 1976, when she helped him mount his 41-foot Trowell on the ground of the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands, after which a year later, they wed.
Bruggen was also well-known for her scholarly books and essays analyzing the works of such modern artists as John Baldessari, Bruce Nauman and Gerhard Richter, reported the SF Gate.
Bruggen had a persuasive matter-of-fact attitude when it came to convincing mayors and other city officials to support what were sometimes controversial public artworks that she and Oldenburg sought to mount.
In addition to her written and artistic work, Bruggen served as a curator at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam from 1967 to 1971, and as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Endschede, Netherlands. She has been honored with many distinctions, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center in Washington, D.C., in 1994, and the Nathaniel S. Saltonstall Award from the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, in 1996.
Talk to other readers about this story.
|
|
|
|
|
