Drawn from our own museum’s collection, the development of modern twentieth-century sculpture is the main theme of Eigen+Beeld. To provide some form of synopsis this overview is staged in five acts, a thematic layout in a particular chronological order in which the past, present and future are closely linked. 

The first act entitled ‘Places to be’ presents the theme of the monument. Within the Netherlands, modern sculpture is rooted in public, naturalistic sculpture from which in the nineteenth century the nation took its chauvinistic shape.  In the following section, Onbegrensd (Boundless) marks the beginning of important, modern sculpture. This came into being as the result of the great fascination for the exotic and the extravagance of sculptors who, in the first decades of the twentieth century, were influenced by the modern architect Berlage and later by the expressionist Amsterdam School. The third act – Back to the future – focuses on the neoclassicism that in reaction to the devastation of the First World War heralded the retour à l’ordre of the interbellum period and found direct inspiration in the universal values of Mediterranean, classical antiquity. Act four – De innerlijke constructie (Inner construction) – deals with the abstract movement within modern sculpture. Inspired by the pre-war, artistic experiment of the neoplasticism of the Dutch ‘De Stijl’ movement, the abstract image was accepted and even dominant in the post-war decades. With a strong conceptual basis, the return to figuration constitutes the fifth and final act entitled Untitled. It is presented as the direct reaction of a new generation of sculptors from the 1980s and ‘90s to the non-figurative work of their colleagues who produced abstract forms as well as the negation of the object and the craft of conceptual art.  

Of course the boundaries are arbitrary and certain works could be displayed in one or possibly more galleries. Art will not be dictated to, and the history of art provides only a modest armoury of tools when it comes to the explanation of works of art. At best, this quintet will stimulate the viewers themselves to set about classifying the works. 

Eigen+Beeld consists of approximately 75 sculptures by well-known and lesser-known sculptors of Dutch and other origins, who date from bygone years or very recent times. Once placed within the five themes, works by artists of international reputation join the company of unknown talent coming from all corners of the globe and spanning many centuries, where the emphasis of course lies on modern times. Eigen+Beeld also pays homage to the many collectors who in the last twenty-five years have donated one or more sculptures to museum Beelden aan Zee. In the first place these are the founders of the museum, Theo Scholten and Lida Scholten-Miltenburg, who in 1994 housed their extensive collection of modern sculpture in their museum. It garnered the attention of many private collectors, artists, cultural and commercial institutions, whose donations have contributed to the exceptional and unique collection entrusted to Beelden aan Zee. 

Places to be  

Traditionally, sculptures were often made of materials that would withstand the elements. It is therefore possible to site sculptures at important places in and around the urban environment. Monuments are found everywhere that people live. These sculptures often express something of an evident fact or a generally shared belief. No one in the Netherlands will deny the importance of the Father of the Fatherland, William of Orange, so it is not unusual that we recognize him immediately if we somewhere come across a sculpture of him. In the past a formula came into being: a king on horse means power, a standing man on plinth is either a politician or scientist, a scientist carries book, as does literary person, etc. Variations were made on these sculptural traditions. Mari Andriessen was the most important monument maker in the twentieth century in the Netherlands. Present in the collection of museum Beelden aan Zee are various versions of his Dokwerker (1952). Andriessen designed this monument to commemorate the strike of February 1941. In bronze, it stands in Amsterdam. The artist shows a corpulent working man, leaning slightly backwards, steadfast in the storm of the Second World War that he must endure. Andriessen used the wind frequently as a suggestive element, for example in the flapping coat of Ir. Lely (1954) - the sculpture of the politician and civil engineer that stands as a monument on the (always windy) Afsluitdijk. For the Netherlands, the Second World War was the greatest crisis of the twentieth century. In every municipality in the Netherlands there is always a monument to be found that commemorates that terrible time. Monuments must all be made, so there was much work to be had by the sculptors after 1945. Sometimes competitions were organized to decide who would be given a commission. The design for the Monument voor de onbekende Politieke Gevangene (1952-3) (Monument for the unknown political prisoner) was entered by Wessel Couzijn in such a competition. The Nationaal Monument (1956) on the Dam, made by John Rädecker, is very well known. But an interesting example, opposite in form is the Man van Vught (1947), once thought up by Willem Reijers as an eight-metre high monument. It represents a sitting figure in handcuffs, the head of which looks like a Cycladic sculpture from 3000 BC. 

Outdoor sculptures are not always intended as monuments. A new genre arrived, the first of these in the Netherlands (and perhaps in Europe) being Zonder titel (1957) (Untitled) by Naum Gabo, situated next to the Bijenkorf in Rotterdam. It is a sculpture that is an aesthetic addition in an urban landscape - a sort of landmark. The work was paid for by the department store De Bijenkorf, not by national or local government, something which happens more often than one would think. These sorts of decorative sculptures, incidentally often found on roundabouts in the Netherlands, are of very great diversity (and quality). They are sculptures that want to give us pleasure, not to lecture us. It is also possible that they make a new part of a town more ‘readable’ because they provide a landmark. The Paard (Horse with Rider, 1959) by Marino Marini in The Hague is an example of this. The Wicht (Hussy, 1958) by Oswald Wenckebach literally depicts the place it stands in. The sculpture was made to mark the completion of a new housing estate (Zuidwest) in Leiden, which compared to the respect-worthy old lady (Leiden’s inner city), was still a silly, pubescent girl. There are sculptures everywhere in the Netherlands, also alongside the motorways. This positioning calls for a different design. It is for this reason that Tom Claassen’s Olifanten (1999, Elephants, near Almere) have such seemingly simple and generic contours, since these sculptures must always retain their strength, even if you are racing past at100 kilometres per hour. 

1 Jan Bronner (1881-1972), Hildebrandmonument (Teun de Jager) (Monument for Hildebrand), 1948-1962, artificial stone, collection Cultural Heritage Agency. 

2 Jan Bronner (1881-1972), Hildebrandmonument (Suzette Noiret) (Monument for Hildebrand), 1948-1962, artificial stone, collection Cultural Heritage Agency. 

3 Jan Bronner (1881-1972), Hildebrandmonument (Robertus Nurks), 1948-1962, artificial stone, collection Rijksdienst Cultureel Erfgoed.  

4 Jan Bronner (1881-1972), Hildebrandmonument (Grootmoeder Kegge) (Monument for Hildebrand), 1948-1962, artificial stone, collection Cultural Heritage Agency. 

5 Jan Bronner (1881-1972), Hildebrandmonument (Diakenhuismannetje) (Monument for Hildebrand), 1948-1962, artificial stone, collection Cultural Heritage Agency. 

6 Carel Visser (1928-2015), Tweelingzusters [Twin sisters], 1991, wood (inv.nr. 1246), purchased 2013. (executed in bronze for the Nederlandse Bank, Wassenaar).  

Five aspects of the Hildebrandt Monument  

The renowned sculptor Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) said that it was his task to summarize five forms in a single new form. The exhibition Eigen+beeld does precisely the opposite, by separating five image-defining aspects of modern sculpture. The Hildebrand Monument (1947) by Rijksakademie Professor Jan Bronner (1881-1972) is the link with all five aspects, where again Bronner’s admiration for Maillol is shown. Jan Bronner was a key figure and pioneer in Dutch sculpture, and as professor at the Rijksakademie between 1914 and 1947 was the tutor of dozens of Dutch sculptors.

If you look along the Hildebrand statues, you consistently see another thematic set-up. To the far left, there is the theme about monuments and statues in the public space; Bronner’s statues stand outside, round a walled pond, in the Haarlemmer Hout in Haarlem. Next to that, the second theme presents statues that bear witness to influences far beyond the Dutch borders. Bronner was always very interested in French Gothic and art from Asia (see the ornamentation of Teun de Jager). Then the theme of the human figure, three, which Bronner brilliantly shaped to satisfy his own idiosyncratic will. The fourth theme, abstraction, the keynote of Bronner’s figuration, was worked out in his aphorism Sculpture = architecture, architecture = Sculpture. The fifth theme, conceptualism, is seen to the extreme right of the room - something that Bronner investigated in the masterly Diakenhuismannetje. As a figure that is built up of unbelievably strongly imaginative shapes, it not only says something about the body, but precisely about sculpture as a medium. 

7 Émile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929), Madeleine Charnaux, petite étude [small sketch of Madeleine Charnaux], 1917, bronze (inv.nr. 1472), donation Arno Hammacher 2017.  

8 Arie Schippers (1952), Nelson Mandela (skecth for the Mandela-monument Long Walk to Freedom), 2012, PUR foam (inv.nr. 1228), purchase 2012.  

9 Wessel Couzijn (1912-1984), Sketch for the Monument For The Unknown Political Prisoner, 1952-53, bronze (inv.nr. 103), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1974. 

10 Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005), Monument Oscar Wilde, 1996, plaster, wood,  (inv.nr. 1197), purchase 2012 (supported by the BankGiro Loterij).   

11 Tom Claassen (1964), Z.T. (houten man) [Untitled, Wooden Man], 2002, beech wood (inv.nr. 783), purchase 2002.   

12 Charlotte van Pallandt (1898-1979), Wilhelmina, 1967, bronze (inv.nr. 082), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1973.  

13 Mari Andriessen (1897-1979), Longshoreman (model for the monument in Amsterdam) 1952, plaster (inv.nr. FHM10097), long term loan from the collection Frans Hals Museum. 

14 Mari Andriessen (1897-1979), Ingenieur Lely, 1953, plaster (inv.nr. FHM10010), long term loan from the collection Frans Hals Museum. 

Onbegrensd (Boundless) 

Nobody could have missed the worldwide attention to the Black Lives Matter protest actions and the associated iconoclastic activities that were hotly discussed in the media. Statues of controversially historical figures of the colonial period were pulled down by angry mobs, and there were discussions as to whether such cultural heritage should be removed, repositioned, or at least provided with suitably critical captions. In the Netherlands too, masses of people took to the streets and statues were damaged or daubed with slogans. Our violent colonial history that filled the treasury’s coffers, in combination with the longstanding, governmental half-hearted way of dealing with it, raised much suitable opposition.  

Deep-rooted nationalism was at the time often the motivation for the erection of such statues. In the nineteenth century, nationalistic ideology focused primarily on realism in the style of the 17th century golden age. This blocked the view of a possibly valuable, non-western influence on the visual arts.

This perspective persisted until halfway through the nineteenth century, when the Japonisme in Europe created a true mode in both the visual arts and applied art. Thereafter, artists were inspired by the authentic power and expressiveness of non-western objects. Furthermore, these objects provided them not only with new stylistic elements but also with new materials and techniques. After 1900 this influence paved the way for a more expressive, less ‘polished’ way of representing things. For example, sculptors started working ‘en taille directe’ in which the material was directly hacked into, without prior use of a model or technical tools. In the first decades of the twentieth century non-western art was an important catalyst to modernism in France, Great Britain and Germany. Avant-garde movements, such as cubism, expressionism, Dadaism and Futurism profited greatly from this interest demonstrating the value of looking beyond one’s own borders. 

In the Netherlands painters first came into contact with these trends via the work of progressive colleagues such as Pablo Picasso and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Sculptors working in heavy materials and those who had to incur the large costs of bronze casting generally followed the foreign trends rather less quickly. 

It did not take long for the Museum van Oudheden and the Museum voor Volkenkunde, both of which are in Leiden, to display objects that had been collected in Asia and Africa, just as the Koloniaal Museum in Amsterdam, which had previously been located in Haarlem. There were a number of well-established art and antique dealers, such as Van Lier and Vecht, who supported artists interested in ethnographical objects. The influential architecture art magazine Wendingen regularly paid attention to art from outside Europe - in particular India - and even devoted special editions to it.  

Sculptures with an ‘exotic tinge’ remained popular until the 1930s. For this reason, there were sometimes doubts about the principles of certain artists. Namely, those who opportunistically followed the newest Paris fashions and produced only uninspired ‘copies,’ and those who according to critical colleagues, made an unwholesome shift in the direction of the commercial.  

After the Second World War too, the interest in non-western art continued to be visible in all sorts of ways, as was the case with the members of Cobra, who strove for direct and spontaneous expression in their work. In the melting pot of sculpture, other cultures were a continuing and inspiring force. This is also apparent from the large number of works in the collection of museum Beelden aan Zee, in which this influence is clearly present. 

15 Cornelis Zitman (1926-2016), Wounded head, 1967, bronze (inv.nr. 891), donation Cornelis & Vera Zitman, 2005.  

16 Leo Braat (1908-1982), Watchman, 1953, locust, stained (inv.nr. 1253), Long term loan collection Cultural Heritage Agency.  

17 Alexander Ney (1939), Head of a poet (Cyrano), 1974, terra cotta (inv.nr. 491), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1985.  

18 Detlef Kraft (1950), African Head, 1976, nickel plated bronze (inv.nr. 596), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1986.  

19 Marja Proper (1949), Unfinished Symphony, 1975, marble (inv.nr. 289), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1981.  

20 Henk Visch (1950), Yours, as Ever, 1988-1989, bronze, iron (inv.nr. 636), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1989. 

21 John Rädecker (1885-1956), Venus Anadyomene, 1933, sandstone (inv.nr. 1442), long term loan private collection.  

22 Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967), Tête de femme (Tête héroïque) [Woman's Head], 1922, wood (inv.nr. 410) purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1983.  

23 William Turnbull (1922-2012), Leda, 1985, bronze (inv.nr. 604), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1987. 

24 Shinkichi Tajiri (1923-2009), Guerrier, 1949, bronze (inv.nr. 400), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1983.  

25 Jan Meefout (1915-1993), Squatting girl, 1972-1974, bluestone (inv.nr. 092), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1972. 

26 Cor Hund (1915-2008) Saïdjah, Adinda en de waterbuffel [Saïdjah, Adinda and the Water Ox, Sketch for the Multatuli Monument, Amsterdam], ca. 1965, plaster (inv.nr. 2.6.2.9), long term loan (collection bequest Cor Hund).  

27 George Grard (1901-1984), L’Africaine (La grande Africaine) [The African Girl], 1958, bronze (inv.nr. 391), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1981. 

28 Yinka Shonibare CBE, RA (1962), Revolution Kid (Fox), 2012, textile, blackberry, golden gun, plastics, taxidermic fox's head (inv.nr. 1223), purchase 2012 (supported by BankGiro Loterij).  

29 Karl Manfred Rennertz (1952), Marabu I (Galatea), 1982, painted alder-wood (inv.nr. 399), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1983.  

 30 Ahmed Askalani (1978), Sheikh el Ghaffar (Head of village security), 2001, palm leaves, metal, wood (inv.nr. 766), purchase 2002.   

31 Tirzo Martha (1965), The Difference Between Me and Black, 2014, wood, paint, canvas, long term loan (collection Jan Gulmans). 

Back to the Future  

After 1918, the horrors of the First World War led to the beginning of a development in the visual arts referred to in art history as retour à l’ordre. The early modernists – with Picasso at their head – who prior to the slaughter of millions had been experimenting, dismantling and deforming to their hearts’ content, turned to the timeless beauty of classical antiquity - painting and sculpting the human figure in noble and still greatness. The rediscovery and reinterpretation of the classics and the pursuit of the timeless beauty of the Mediterranean world dominated the official art of the interbellum that entered into a marriage of convenience with the modern, functionalistic architecture of the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit). The French sculptors Aristide Maillol and Charles Despiau were the pioneers of this contemporary classicism and made Paris its epicenter. In the Netherlands, sculpture turned away from the social message that it had once championed as sculptural architectural features serving the expressionistic architecture of the Amsterdam School. Sculpture became autonomous; a three-dimensional object that should be seen from all sides whose design devoid of moralism or anecdotal style was only the starting point for sculptural discovery. In this way this neoclassical sculpture opened the way irrevocably to abstraction, to a non-figurative sculpture.  

The aftermath of the Second World War showed something that was entirely the opposite revealed an entirely opposite direction. It was claimed that this shift was to some extent the result of the stranglehold in which neoclassicism had ended up in, because of Hitler and Stalin’s enthusiasm for it. Be this as it may, quite a number of sculptors who in the post-war years would spectacularly innovate the international world of sculpture chose to focus on the immortalization of the violated human being: derelict, mutilated, sometimes ‘animalistically’ savage, while other times vegetative and passive. Alberto Giacometti, Lynn Chadwick and Germaine Richier extolled the virtues of consciously unpolished, anti-behaagzuchtige, non-pleasing sculpture of unpatinated bronze and rusty iron. A semi-figurative sculpture that had a tinge of Cobra and that would create a bridge with the pure abstract of constructivist sculpture of the so-called ‘iron boys’ of the 1950s and ‘60s. The sculptural figurativeness of the disfigured human image reflected directly the complete disintegration that the Second World War had brought about, reacted to the anxiety and uncertainty of the subsequent Cold War and to the generally grim state of mind of those years in which existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre held that mankind is essentially bad and one’s fellow man is per definition ‘in the way’. This international, sculptural movement has been essential to the development of modern sculpture, but because of its morose and individualistic nature should still to a great extent be rediscovered and described. Although every so often the image of the run-down human being appears on the scene (think about Donatello’s 1455 Maria Magdalena), it is mainly the sculptors of the twentieth century that it has taken into its grasp.  

32 Tony van der Vorst (1946), Lilith, 1997, Belgian blue (inv.nr. 739), purchase 2000. 

33 Aron Demetz (1972), Things in the mirror are closer than they appear, 2010, cedar, pine resin, (inv.nr. 1250), purchase 2013 (supported by the BankGiro Loterij). 

 34 Francien Valk (1954), Patroclos, 2009, wood (Iroko or Kambala), (inv.nr. 1279), purchase 2014 (Fonds Scholten – Miltenburg). 

 35 Kiki Smith (1954), Alice II (Feet Uncrossed), 2006, porcelain (edition), purchase 2012. 

 36 Igor Mitoraj (1944 – 2014), Titan, 1978, marble (inv.nr. 251), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1980.  

 37 Thom Puckey (1948), I.S. with Beretta 92 Semi-Automatic, 2011, marble (inv.nr. 1266), purchase 2014 (supported by the BankGiro Loterij). 

38 Eja Siepman van den Berg (1943), Standing figure, arms upwards, 1985, bronze (inv.nr. 1578), donation Vereniging Rembrandt (bequest C.C. Mout). 

39 Gerrit Bolhuis (1907 – 1975), Sculptor, 1950, terra cotta (inv.nr. 864), long term loan collection Cultural Heritage Agency.

40 Han Wezelaar (1901 – 1984), Female torso, 1940, terra cotta, long term loan (Jan Teeuwisse).

41 Gerhard Marcks (1889 – 1981), Kleine Drei Grazien [Small Three Graces], 1956, bronze (inv.nr. 440), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1984. 

42 Anonymous, Buddha Sakyamuni or Jain Tirthankara (?), Sri Lanka or Southern India (?), 6th-7th century CE , granite, long term loan Ger Eenens Collection.  

Back to the Future  

Existence 

43 Marino Marini (1901 – 1980), Cavallo [Horse], 1952, bronze, anonymus donation 2014. 

44 Germaine Richier (1902 – 1957), Zittende vrouw [Woman Seated], 1942, plaster, long term loan bequest Jan van Haaren.  

45 Gustav Seitz (1906-1969), Letzter Brecht-Kopf [Last Brecht Portrait], 1967, bronze (inv.nr. 679), purchase 1995. 

46 César (1921 – 1998), Les jambes [The Legs], 1957, bronze (inv.nr. 482), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1984. 

47 Lotti van der Gaag (1923 – 1999), Untitled, Standing figure, 1956, bronze (inv.nr. 995), purchase 2010. 

48 Eugène Dodeigne (1923 – 2015), Le poing [The Fist], 1963, bronze (inv.nr. 484), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1984.  

49 Karin Arink (1967), Zusjes (Sisters), 1994, terra cotta (inv.nr. 1001), purchase 2010  supptorted by the family Peese Binkhorst - Hoffscholte.

50 Arie Schippers (1952), Poseren voor Arie Schippers [Posing for Arie Schippers], 2006, concrete, plaster, acrylic, (inv.nr. 1333), donation artist 2015.  

51 Johan Tahon (1965), Adama (Human), 2006, plaster (inv.nr. 939), donation artist 2007. 

The inner construction 

Constructions are all around us, but also within us. Charlotte van Pallandt (1898-1997) created the Constructie Zelfportret in plaster in 1971. With the help of numbered pieces of plaster she built the underlying structure of her own effigy, which she then used to create a realistic self-portrait. There is almost no better example of what abstract sculpture should be: the road to geometric abstraction that artists travelled was principally a search for pure form. In the history of art, the abstract form can be regarded as the ultimate form. Stripped of the multitude of contours, movement and noise, the form is brought back to its core.  

The relationship with mankind, nature and religion was traditionally the most evident in sculpture. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, the human form was almost exclusively the subject of sculpture. The durability of the materials used by sculptors made sculpture the symbol of immortality. The coming into being of abstract art, which mainly came from painting, developed only slowly in sculpture. The earliest signs of abstraction in the visual arts date from the end of the nineteenth century, when the French painter Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) shifted to a more schematic use of planes in his landscapes. Prior to the development of painting there had already been impulses from literature, science, psychology and history which had influenced both art and sculpture and allowed for a more free interpretation of reality. The use of abstract shapes in art only became the norm in the 1960s and ‘70s, both in Europe and the United States.  

Outdoors, an abstract sculpture generally does not stand on a pedestal, but forms a link between the street and the architecture contributing to the design of a town or landscape and influencing the perception of the space. At its foundation, abstract sculpture does not have the function of keeping alive a concrete memory of an historical event, or to honour a certain person. The meaning lies locked in the sculpture itself; in the shape, in the space where it is situated, whether this is within or outside the walls of the museum. Within the space of a museum abstract sculptures hint at tensions. These occur in the sculptures, in their elements in relation to one another, but is also the space between the sculptures and the walls of the museum. Abstract sculptures in public spaces play a challenging game with gravity, complement the urban architecture, cultivate the architecture of the landscape and explore the boundaries of the possibilities of material and sculptural quality.  

The Netherlands has made a great contribution to the development of abstract art, in particular from within the artist group De Stijl and its most important representative: Piet Mondriaan (1872-1944). Mondriaan’s quest symbolizes the changing society that existed at the dawning of the modern time. In the 1920s, he espoused the geometric abstract form which was in his eyes a modern visual language and a pure form for a complex reality. The blossoming of abstract sculpture in the Netherlands came about in the second half of the twentieth century, with executants including former Rijksakademie students Leo de Vries and Ben Guntenaar and autodidacts André Volten and Auke de Vries. 

52 Antony Caro (1924-2013), Table Piece CLXIX, 1974, scrap steel (inv.nr. 1302), purchase 2014 (supported by the BankGiro Loterij).  

53 Charlotte van Pallandt (1898-1997), Constructie Zelfportret [Construction Self Portrait], 1971, plaster (inv.nr. 1217), purchase 2012 (supported by the Vereniging Rembrandt / A. Quist-Rütter Fonds).  

54 herman de vries (1931), four stems, 1960, wood, iron wire, sand, white paint (inv.nr. 1318), purchase  2015  (supported by the BankGiro Loterij).  

55 David van de Kop (1937 - 1994), Joint, 1965, wrought iron (inv.nr. 1583),  donation Richard & Marjo Bionda 2019.  

56 David van de Kop (1937 – 1994), Untitled, 1971, wrought iron (inv.nr. 1584), donation Richard & Marjo Bionda 2019. 

57 Renato Nicolodi (1980), Kazemat 1, 2014, concrete (inv.nr. 1295), purchase (supported by the BankGiro Loterij) 2014.  

58 Ben Guntenaar (1922-2009), 9403, 1994, limestone (inv.nr. 1569), purchase 2018 fonds Scholten – Miltenburg.  

 59 Erik van Spronsen (1948-2020), 8 Kubusjes [8 small cubes], 2016, marble (inv.nr. 1621), donation bequest Van Spronsen 2020.  

 60 Leo de Vries (1932-1994), Torso, 1981, granite (inv.nr. 279), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1981. 

61 André Volten (1925-2002), Scale model for the sculpture on the Jaarbeursplein in Utrecht, 1982, steel, (collection Ed Prins en Margreet Pruijt).  

 62 Hans Bol (1957), Untitled, 1999, inkjetprint, (inv.nr. T 15), purchase 2011 (Fonds Scholten - Miltenburg).  

  63 Auke de Vries (1937), “Sail” Vogelboot [Sail, Bird Boat], 2009, painted metal (inv.nr. 1232), purchase 2012 (Fonds Scholten - Miltenburg).  

64 Auke de Vries (1937), Untitled, 2016, painted metal, (collection Isaäc Kalisvaart en Francien Valk). 

Zonder titel (Untitled) 

‘I would very much like to make something immaterial, but how do you do that? Simply by putting a thought into words it is, in a sense turned material,’ says Antoine Berghs in a 1999 interview. He does not look upon his expressions as works of art. They are translated flows of thought. The form – sculpture, painting, text, installation or video – is always subordinate to the content. He examines, provokes thought, inspires. 

Berghs’ interpretation touches the essence of the conceptual art of the 1960s and ‘70s. In that period new ideas came into being as to what could also be seen as art. Artists explored the boundaries of art. This quest had already begun in 1917, when Marcel Duchamp presented his Fountain at a group exhibition in New York: an upturned urinal on a pedestal, signed ‘R. Mutt’. The work was not admitted to the exhibition, but Duchamp persisted. He explained that it did not make any difference whether the artist had actually created the work himself. Each everyday object on a pedestal can be art if the artist elevates it to become art. With his provocative Fountain, Duchamp wanted to unleash a discussion as to what art is. In this way he was to become the father of Conceptual art. 

In the 1960s and ‘70s the definition of art was broadened further. This period then also characterized itself in a wave of movements and new art forms, such as Minimal Art, Zero/Nul, Fluxus, Concept Art, Body Art, Land Art, Arte Povera, Environment, Happening, Performance. The field of arts became infinite, but always with the principle that a concept or idea is the point of departure for the work. Conceptual artists brought the object to discussion and saw the idea as the core of the movement. Conceptual art could also be seen as the search for the minimum conditions as to what a work of art may fulfil. Strictly speaking, they thus declared the art object as being unnecessary.  

Most of the conceptual artists did not go so far. They still produced objects, but as conceptual art. The visible, physical work of art could also be made by someone else, as Duchamp pointed out. These days ‘the concept’ has become indispensable in the visual arts. Furthermore, the impact or worth of a work is measured against it. In this sense, contemporary art is very much related to the Conceptual art of the 1960s and ‘70s. Because of the variety of its forms, conceptualism is difficult to define.  

Antoine Berghs’ desire to create immaterial art is tangible in his work. The work with the strange title = (passage) consists of a naked figure, kneeling on the ground. With his hands he creates a figure above his head. The light source behind him conjures up the silhouette of a swan onto the wall. The essence of the work remains a riddle. Where must we look to be able to see Berghs’ flows of thought? It’s lucky for us that Berghs has not yet succeeded in working completely immaterially. In this way his work is also accessible to others. 

65 Man Ray (1890 – 1976), Herma, 1975, bronze (inv.nr. 489), purchase Theo & Lida Scholten 1984. 

66 Sherrie  Levine (1947), False God, 2007, bronze, (Bert Kreuk Collection).   

67 Jake en Dinos Chapman (1966, 1962), Say Goodbye to Loneliness, 2008, painted bronze (inv.nr. 1000), purchase 2010 (supported by the BankGiro Loterij).  

68 Matthew Day Jackson (1974), Terminal Velocity, 2008, recycled car roof, lead, wood, gilded steel, concrete (inv.nr. 1309), donation Bert Kreuk 2015.   

 69 Mimmo Paladino (1948), Uomo e coccodrillo, 1994, ceramics, glazed (inv.nr. 680), purchase 1995.   

70 Eveline van Duyl (1957), Montaigne, 2010, embroidery, textiles, ropes, paper (inv.nr. 1216), purchase 2012 (supported by the BankGiro Loterij / Fonds Scholten - Miltenburg). 

71 Klaas Kloosterboer (1959), ZT “15189” (Gele Berg)[ Yellow Mountain[, 2015, enamel laquer, canvas, tables, chair (inv.nr. 1609), donation Anno Lampe & Lex Plompen 2019.  

72 Art & Language (1967), Painting-Sculpture, 1966, alkyd paint, hardboard, collection Cees Hendrikse & Myra Hendrikse-Ouweleen. 

73 Pieter Laurens Mol (1946), File of Fists, 1995, plaster, rust coloring,steel rod, dried thistle, iron wire (inv.nr. 1257), purchase 2013 (supported by the BankGiro Loterij). 

74 Zhang Dali (1963), Head no. 5, Head no. 24, Head no. 49, Head no. 59 from the series One Hundred Chinese 2001-2002, synthetic resin (inv.nr. 1367), donation Cees Hendrikse & Myra Hendrikse-Ouweleen 2015.  

75 Caspar Berger (1965), Narcissus/Zelfportret 15 [Self Portrait], 2014, silver 935, brass, leather, pear-wood, (inv.nr. 1265), long term loan Groene Oase B.V.  

76 Marc Quinn (1964), Carbon Cycle, 2008, bronze (inv.nr. 984), purchase 2009 (supported by the BankGiro Loterij). 

 77 Hans van Houwelingen (1957), Human Column, Posthumously, 1998, digital prints (inv.nr. 1320), long term loan artist. 

 78 Harmen Brethouwer (1960), Red on Black, 2017, urushi lacquer, wood, metal peg (inv.nr. 1451), purchase 2017. 

79 Antoine  Berghs (1971), = (passage), 1999, limewood, acrylic, theatre spot light (inv.nr. 907), purchase 2006.