Artwork Data
Artwork Location
Address
Huijgenspark, Den Haag
City district
Centrum
GPS data
52.0728545683769, 4.32228161825966 View on map
Artwork Description
Text
The sculptures of Marus van der Made are more or less standardly classified as geometric abstract or concrete art. The artist from Zoetermeer was trained as an architect and graphic artist and reveals, in an important part of his free work, a strong preference for combining different materials. The basic form of his sculptures is usually a square or a triangle. By filling the recesses or openings with materials other than those of which the main form is made, contrasts are created, creating a visual field of tension and evoking associations.
Occasionally, Van der Made allows himself to be challenged to explore the boundaries of abstraction. In that case, his geometrically abstract sculptures may take the form of an abstracted chair, for example.
In the sculpture placed in Huijgenspark, the vertical form is interrupted about three-quarters of the way down by an opening that in this particular case is not filled with any other material. Van der Made created the opening by separating the two long strips that together form the 'column', letting them follow their own path and eventually bringing them back together again, so that the V-shape is created, which also determines the lower part of the sculpture.
The interventions in form are limited to the ingenious way in which the two sides of the stainless steel sculpture are folded apart and finally come together again. Here, Van der Made shows that he always claims enough freedom and leeway to guarantee the tension in the sculpture without stepping outside the geometrically abstract framework. Amidst the old trees in the immediate vicinity, the sculpture is reminiscent of a stylised representation of a growth process, like the thickening of a tree trunk caused by pruning.