Artwork Data
Artwork Location
Address
Florence Nightingalepad, Den Haag
City district
Escamp
GPS data
52.055026267873, 4.2651779725609 View on map
Artwork Description
Text
Sometimes they are modest and barely noticeable, sometimes they claim the attention of passers-by quite unavoidably. Such are the images of Lon Pennock. In the category of eye-catchers, 'L'Homme' scores very high. The 1973 sculpture originally stood at the entrance to the emergency room on the left-hand side of the Leyenburg Hospital. It is about 5 metres tall and effortlessly competed for attention with the nearby building. New construction and redevelopment gave it a different place. Now it marks the beginning of the adjacent Florence Nightingale Park on the Leyweg side.
The title 'L'Homme' justifies the assumption that the sculpture is representative of Pennock's vision of man. See the human being', the sculpture calls out to the passers-by. It is difficult to say exactly what the artist's vision of man is, because the formal language has been reduced to an absolute minimum. Frills and ornamentation are absent. In fact, there are two forms that are the mirror image of each other. They contrast, but at the same time they complete each other. Together, they form a two-part image that manifests itself very clearly as a unity of opposites.
Although he uses constructivist principles, Pennock focuses on concrete starting points in his formal language. This also applies to 'L'Homme'. The sculptor allows himself a large degree of artistic freedom, but does not refrain from anchoring his view of the world and of mankind in simple geometric forms and clear symbols. Pennock has always researched materials. In addition, he always carefully examines how a sculpture relates to its immediate surroundings. His 'L'Homme' is therefore certainly in place at the hospital.