Artwork Data

Title

Zonder titel

Artist

Koos Flinterman

Year

1981

Material

staal

Artwork Location

Address

Mandelaplein, Den Haag

City district

Centrum

GPS data

52.064407055602, 4.29568597812937 View on map

Artwork Description

Text

In 1981, the new building for the Boerenplein community centre on the square of the same name was completed. The new building was decorated with a work of art: two wall objects by artist Koos Flinterman. Currently, the community centre is located at the Mandelaplein. No relocation, but as a protest against the South African apartheid regime, the Boerenplein was renamed Mandelaplein in 1987.
Flinterman's art before 1983 can best be described as geometric abstract. Characteristics of this style, such as geometry, systematics, construction and architecture, can be seen in the wall objects for the community centre. For instance, the steel plates on the outer wall are constructions of geometric forms. In both, the picture plane is systematically subdivided into four different parts. These are arranged in such a way as to create a clear centre, the heart of the work of art, just as an architect arranges spaces around a central hall.
Rather than the similarities, the differences between the two objects stand out. One object is placed halfway up the wall, the other against the eaves. And while one is made up of four shades of blue, the other is made up of four contrasting colours of red, yellow, dark grey and blue-grey. Perhaps less noticeable, but none of the total of eight geometric planes is identical. Yet the works of art visibly belong together and the four surfaces of each wall object fit seamlessly into each other, like a building with many rooms.
In 1976, Flinterman graduated from the Arnhem Academy of Visual Arts, architectural design department. In the years that followed, he received numerous commissions. Since the mid-1980s, Flinterman has mainly acted as a curator of exhibitions of contemporary visual art. For instance, he curated 'Vent du Nord', an exhibition series of the Institut Néerlandais in Paris with work by young, recently graduated Dutch artists.

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