Artwork Data

Title

Zonlichtbaken

Artist

Pieter Slegers

Year

1987

Material

roestvrij staal

Dimensions

1400 cm

Artwork Location

Address

Gevers Deynootweg, Den Haag

City district

Scheveningen

GPS data

52.1173410989874, 4.28701852636016 View on map

Artwork Description

Text

If you approach the Strandweg near the Zwartepad on a sunny morning, you can see how the 'Sunlight Beacon' shines in the sunlight. The stainless steel counterpart to the lighthouse further on consists of two columns that reflect the bright morning sun.
In the evening, the larger column is illuminated by a spotlight from the smaller one. Then the shadows on the polished surface suggest a wave motion.
Sunlight Beacon' was made by Piet Slegers. The artist is not as well known as his contemporaries Wessel Couzijn and André Volten. However, his works are in the possession of prominent museums such as the Kröller-Müller Museum.

Slegers is probably less well known because his oeuvre is rather diverse. In his early years he made traditional sculptures of threshing farmers. After the war, austere, polished sculptures representing abstract concepts such as growth and despair were created; around 1960, his bronzes were very dynamic. However, nature was always the starting point.

Slegers has designed many sculptures for public spaces. He considered it important to involve the surroundings in his sculptures. An important example is 'Source', which was made in 1967/1968 for office 'Vitens' in Velp. This water work of chunks of lava rock was also placed on a square designed by him. The landscape project 'Aardzee' in the Flevopolder (1976-1982) is also characteristic of Slegers' working method.
After he experienced the intensity of the penetrating sunlight in the hospital at the end of the sixties, his use of materials became less earthly. After that, he made many rigidly designed sculptures of steel for which - the spiritual experience of - light, reflection and shadow, wind and water formed the starting point. At the age of 80, Slegers still made thin plaster sculptures in which he tried to visualise the movement of the clouds. Sunlight Beacon' announced it already: the concrete form dissolves; what remains is the reflection of sun, sea and clouds.

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