Artwork Data

Title

Eerbetoon aan mevrouw Josine de Bruyn Kops

Artist

Sol Lewitt

Year

1990

Material

Leisteen

Dimensions

h. 65 cm

Artwork Location

Address

Stadhouderslaan, Den Haag

City district

Scheveningen

GPS data

52.090194630888, 4.2793504077957 View on map

Artwork Description

Text

There has been much ado about the placement of this work of art by the famous American artist Sol LeWitt. Architect Sjoerd Schamhart did not want it to be added to the wing of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag that he designed. He called the addition 'contamination'. Yet LeWitt's reliefs seem to have been designed with respect for the architecture. It is restrained in colour due to the travertine ground with geometric figures in slate on top.

On 2 November 1990, LeWitt's facade object was unveiled to commemorate the fiftieth birthday of Josine de Bruyn Kops. De Bruyn Kops died at the age of 47, when she was the director of the Museum 'Het Catharina Gasthuis' in Gouda. She was a good friend of LeWitt. He wanted to honour her with a work of art. Kunstmuseum Den Haag (at the time, still called Haags Gemeentemuseum), where she started her museum career, was chosen as the location. The museum already owned art by LeWitt, such as the black-and-white striped mural Wall Drawing # 373 in the central hall.

The idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work [...]', wrote LeWitt in 1967. He defined his own work as conceptual art. On the basis of precisely described ideas, he had his works of art executed by assistants, mostly artists. LeWitt is also called a minimalist because he almost exclusively uses the simplest forms in his work. The cube, in particular, is regularly used. This is also the case in his tribute to De Bruyn Kops. In addition to the cube, from left to right we see a pyramid, a trapezium, a parallelogram and a rectangle. LeWitt used so-called isometric figures, geometric figures of which only the ribs are shown. This gives the two-dimensional work of art a great spatial effect.

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