Melanie Gerlis: "Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen at Lever House"

Paula Cooper Gallery has joined forces with developers Brookfield Properties and WatermanClark to mount a show of Claes Oldenburg and his longtime collaborator and wife, Coosje van Bruggen, in New York’s recently renovated Lever House. The exhibition, the first major Oldenburg showing since he died in 2022, will comprise approximately 20 pieces of sculptures, drawings and prints in the publicly accessible lobby and outdoor spaces of the Midtown modernist office building. The show, organised by Jacob King, runs from November 18 until autumn 2025 with the majority of works for sale, ranging from $25,000 to $6mn.

Two of Oldenburg and Van Bruggen’s large sculptures — “Architect’s Handkerchief” (1999) and the “Plantoir, Red (Mid-Scale)” (2001-2021) — will be in the outdoor plaza, while the presentation inside will emphasise their consumer product-based works, in recognition of the building’s original 1952 owners, Lever Brothers (known more widely as Unilever). These include Oldenburg’s toothpaste sculpture “Tube Supported by its Contents” (1981). “It’s an exciting project because themes of consumerism featured so strongly in Claes and Coosje’s work,” says Steve Henry, senior partner at Paula Cooper gallery. 

Lever House is no stranger to art — its previous owner Aby Rosen, co-founder of property group RFR Holding, hosted exhibitions and commissioned art for the building, which has since undergone a $100mn redevelopment.

— Melanie Gerlis