Text

In The Hague, there are two versions of Ferry Simonis' 'Shift to the left': sculptures that were acquired under the BKR scheme. One variation on this theme stands on the grounds of the Bloemendaal psychiatric hospital. The approximately three-metre high sculpture has had no new successors, because more than twelve years after completing his training at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (where he graduated in 1981) Simonis gave up visual art. He took a course in art management and has been manifesting himself in cultural life in The Hague since 1994 as an organiser of literary events, of which his brainchild 'Dichter aan Huis' (Poet at Home) is the best known.

Shift to the left' consists of three independently standing columns with protrusions to the left or (seen differently) notches to the right. The breaks in the straight line suggest the existence of an imaginary diagonal that cuts through the columns. The columns are neatly aligned. The intersection enhances the experience of rhythm without disturbing the balance. Simonis had a preference for such minimal, formal interventions. Similar shifts and changes in form also occur in his other sculptures.