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He stands on the square in front of PePijn Theatre in Nieuwe Schoolstraat. Map with work under his arm, hat on his head, hands in pockets and legs wide apart. It's Peter Kortekaas's 'Visual Artist' from 1983. You immediately wonder whether this might be a self-portrait of the sculptor.

You could also see it as a caricature of the artist. It is not the facial features that have been magnified, but the character traits that have been accentuated. Kortekaas has aptly portrayed him in a nonchalant and at the same time sturdy pose.
The strength of Kortekaas' images lies in two things. Firstly, there is his extensive knowledge of anatomy: Kortekaas is able to convincingly portray every pose from characteristic to unusual. Then there is his talent as a modeler. This enables him to directly translate inner self or mood into material. Modelled versions therefore precede his bronzes. Clay, after all, is the material par excellence for modelling.
Kortekaas does this modelling in a rather coarse, one might almost say rough way. Looking at his bronzes, you can see him building up his sculptures with large lumps of clay. The unpolished forms give his sculptures great plasticity.

Yet Kortekaas does not only work in bronze and his art is not exclusively figurative. He makes abstract sculptures from stone and wood and abstract animal figures from lead. Animals, as well as people, occupy an important place in his oeuvre. Bumping horses, a proud and stubborn looking ram, a stubborn cow - a whole menagerie has come into being in Kortekaas' studio. And his animal images usually have that typical and sometimes humorous quality that we know from his human figures.