Commissioned Sketch for a monument of Nelson Mandela, - 2009
"Portrait of a man" - 2002
"Portrait of a man" originates in a series of works based upon selfportraits by other artists. This series deals with the self-image of an artist and the ways to express it. The series ends with some stretched torso's, nude sculptures based upon selfportraits by Egon Schiele. I used the stretched form for "Portrait of a man", but in its content this piece is different from its predecessors. There is no direct link to the works by other artists.
As the titel of the work shows, this sculpture is not a portrait of a real person, but a general portrait of 'a' man. In contrast with this, we see a specific and personal presence and a phychological being: the face, the body and its expression are not schematic or abstract, but very real instead. The bronze shows us a human of flesh and blood, with desires and emotions and a sexual life. The emotion is unsettled though and introvert, but not totally turned away. I emphasized this stage of mind by making the head enlarged and by its posture in which one arm holds the other.
This is a man who holds himself, while standing in the world and reflecting on it.
The Sculpture Galley of Peter Struycken, The Hague, 2002. Bronze, 190 cm.
In commisssion of Stroom Den Haag / Peter Struycken.
'Study on the Human Proportions according to Albrecht Dürer.'
(From the Dresdner Sketchbooks)
Sculpture for Inner Court, commissioned by Stadsherstel Den Haag en omstreken,
2000. Bronze 110 cm.