The gardening season is just around the corner, so let’s talk about… garden trowels! One of them — five meters tall — stands right next to Lever House on Park Avenue.
Plantoir, Red: what is this sculpture?
Plantoir, Red is a garden tool scaled up to about three times human height, created by the vibrant artistic duo Claes Oldenburg (1929–2022) and Coosje van Bruggen (1942–2009), two key figures in 20th-century pop art and sculpture.
They are also behind the famous Binoculars Building in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, which now houses a Google office.
The word “plantoir” is the French term for a handheld gardening tool (in English — a dibble or trowel) used to make holes in the soil for seeds and seedlings. This reflects a signature approach of Oldenburg and van Bruggen: enlarging everyday objects to monumental scale.
The sculpture was first presented on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2002. Later, a version stood for many years on the grounds of Meredith Corporation in Des Moines. According to media reports, the sculpture was sold to an out-of-state buyer in 2025.
The New York installation is version No. 3. Other versions can be found in:
- Porto, Portugal
- Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Moscow (on Bolotnaya Square)
- Possibly previously in a sculpture park in Des Moines, Iowa (though sizes may vary)
Architect’s Handkerchief
Next to the trowel stands another sculpture by the same artists — Architect’s Handkerchief, inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
The idea came from a photograph by Morley Baer, published in the book The Master Builders: Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright (1960) by Peter Blake, depicting Mies’s pocket handkerchief.
Interestingly, despite their European origins, Oldenburg and van Bruggen lived for many years in New York’s SoHo. This makes the New York trowel and handkerchief their only local sculptures in the city where they lived and worked.
With summer just around the corner, if you’re strolling through New York City, it’s worth stepping into this уютный courtyard to see the striking trowel and its companion piece.
📍 Plantoir, Red in the courtyard of Lever House / 390 Park Ave, New York, NY 10022
