Text

A sculpture by Willem Hussem, and then 10 metres high too: that is special in more ways than one. For this artist has become known primarily as a painter and poet. His visual poems and paintings are imbued with a passion for Eastern culture. This obelisk-like object looks very concrete. The shapes seem to have been dictated by a conceptual artist thinking formally and geometrically rather than by someone with an interest in mystical Eastern calligraphy.

About his work, Hussem once said that it was apparently not attractive. Some paintings were smeared out of indignation and the crowning of another painting caused a commotion in the media and among the general public. Initially Hussem produced paintings that expressed his admiration for Vincent van Gogh. Later, in Paris, he came into contact with Mondrian. In 1936, he settled in The Hague in Mijtensstraat, above a former municipal bathhouse. There he built up an oeuvre that connoisseurs characterised as 'abstract mood art'.

What is less well known is that Hussem was not only interested in the subjective, calligraphic gesture but also in a more objective visual language in which the pursuit of balance was essential.

While the forms on the canvas became increasingly rigid, Hussem also started composing in open space: first in aluminium, later also in wood. His pursuit of symmetry in three-dimensional forms is reminiscent of the work of André Volten. In this light, it is not surprising that Hussem even experimented with computers at a later age, under the guidance of Peter Struycken.

Originally, Hussem's sculpture stood at the entrance to the polyclinic on the right-hand side of the Leyenburg Hospital. After the refurbishment, the new Els Borst-Eilersplein square was no longer a suitable place for this monumental sculpture. It was found a little further on at the small roundabout of the Leyweg with the Volendamlaan.