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Jan Snoeck's monumental wall decoration, applied to the façade of the polder pumping station on the corner of Bezuidenhoutseweg and Carel Reinierskade in 1965, is very different from the visual language with which the artist later became known nationally. The grey wall sculpture is characteristic of the experiments with stone, concrete, metal and mosaic that he carried out in the 1950s and 1960s.

Snoeck gives full scope to his associations with the building's function. His wall relief can be traced back, in the main, to life in and with water. A stylised fish forms the epicentre of the lively representation in which various forms and meanings are intertwined and in which land and water complement each other. The combination of concrete relief and glazed ceramic heralds the passion for ceramics that the artist revealed in his later work, but otherwise the wall decoration differs essentially from the stylised figures in bright colours that have contributed significantly to the image that the outside world has acquired of Snoeck's art.

The versatile artist worked in all kinds of materials. In addition to spatial work, he also made screen prints and multiples that are used by companies as promotional gifts. Hand-knotted woollen carpets, boxes with pop-up cards, urns and vases underline the fact that he does not shy away from making easily accessible art that is appreciated by a large public.

The artistic elite has always had difficulty with this, and art historians have found it difficult to classify the work of the independent spirit in a group or movement. Nevertheless, the artist from The Hague has never lacked for recognition. The dozens of sculptures in public spaces that have sprung up all over the Netherlands bear witness to that, as does the extensive solo exhibition in Museum Beelden aan Zee in The Hague in the spring of 2007.