Artwork Data
Artwork Location
Address
Mr. P. Droogleever Fortuynweg, Den Haag
City district
Escamp
GPS data
52.054496915513, 4.2891036571472 View on map
Artwork Description
Text
For years, a group of enthusiastic residents of the Escamp neighborhood of The Hague dedicated themselves to the preservation and visibility of the works of art in their neighborhood. The Collection Escamp Team also developed a real Jan Snoeck bicycle tour. Rightly so, because more than half of all sculptures by Snoeck in The Hague - and there are quite a few - are located in this district. The bike tour leads past, among other places, these Three ceramic sculptures.
Originally, this 1972 artwork stood on Steenvoordenlaan near the Ministry of CRM (Culture, Recreation and Social Work) in Rijswijk. When that building was demolished, one of the members of athletics club Sparta pleaded for its relocation to the Zuiderpark near the athletics track. Now members, cyclists and walkers can enjoy this colorful and funny sculpture.
On three rectangular white tiled walls are three soft shapes. These shapes are composed of ceramic slabs in bright colors, such as yellow, red, blue and green. They also become slightly narrower as the wall gets higher. With hard-fired and glazed clay, Snoeck managed to express softness. And precisely because of the use of cheerful colors, the viewer, upon seeing this work of art, thinks of someone who is doubled over with laughter rather than deep sadness or exhaustion.
About his use of color, the artist said in the Snoeck Tour flyer, "I inherited that fondness from my childhood. My father had a store in painting, drawing and writing supplies and mixed the paints himself. The barrels with the bright dyes have always stayed with me.'
For Snoeck, color was also form. In addition, in many of his works he extremely simplified the human figure into a worm. So limp worms here on the athletics track.