Artwork Data

Title

Rasp

Artist

Jan Snoeck

Year

1968

Material

brons / steenachtig

Dimensions

h. 500 cm

Artwork Location

Address

Segbroeklaan, Den Haag

City district

Segbroek

GPS data

52.079232113726, 4.2617731533489 View on map

Artwork Description

Text

Like the concrete sculpture 'Spectre' that the artist made in 1966, the obelisk-like bronze 'Rasp' that was placed two years later on the lawn at the corner of Segbroeklaan and Goudenregenstraat, is not a typical 'Jan Snoeck sculpture'. The shape and the ribbed surface of the column refer to the grater that every kitchen prince has in his kitchen drawer. Incidentally, Snoeck's 'Grater' lacks holes. He depicts them with short rods that he places in alternating sequence. This produces an unexpected rhythm.

The sculpture also has some specific characteristics of a memorial pole. Only the location detracts from the approximately 5-metre high 'monument'. The busy traffic junction with its signposts, lampposts and traffic lights distracts attention from the monolithic sculpture, which is best appreciated when viewed against the backdrop of a few tall trees.

The bar-shaped rasp or file with its notches differs from the work with which Snoeck later became known. Although the sculpture has a clearly visible relationship with reality, it is more reminiscent of an abstract object than of a tool whose size is greatly inflated. If it had been the artist's intention to make a sculpture comparable to Claes Oldenburg's famous trowel, which can be seen in the garden of the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the rasp would also have had to have had a handle, which would have made the tool (apart from its disproportionate dimensions) seem just like the real thing.

Anyone who immediately thinks of an abstracted ceramic human figure when they hear the name Jan Snoeck is, in this case, way off base. Within the artist's total oeuvre, this sculpture remains an example of an early work that bears no trace of the characteristic visual language he developed later.

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