Carel Visser
{{Short description|Dutch sculptor}}
Carel Nicolaas Visser (3 May 1928 – 1 March 2015) was a Dutch sculptor. He is considered an important representative of Dutch abstract-minimalist constructivism in sculpture.
Life and work
Visser was born on 3 May 1928 in Papendrecht.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/carel-visser-sculptor-hailed-as-a-master-of-minimalism-who-turned-metal-and-concrete-into-elegant-10086228.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191117100142/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/carel-visser-sculptor-hailed-as-a-master-of-minimalism-who-turned-metal-and-concrete-into-elegant-10086228.html |title=Carel Visser: Sculptor hailed as a master of minimalism who turned metal and concrete into elegant and powerful forms |work=The Independent |date=5 March 2015 |archive-date=17 November 2019}} From 1948 until 1949 Visser studied architecture at the Technical University in Delft and subsequently from 1949 until 1951 sculpture at the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague. After study in England and France, he settled as an independent artist in 1952 in Amsterdam.
In his early career Visser created originally styled iron bird sculptures and had his first solo exhibition in 1954 at Galerie Martinet in Amsterdam. In 1957, when his artistic style became more abstract, a new period began in which he made several trips: a study trip to Italy (Sardinia) on a scholarship from the Italian government in 1957; a stay as a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis in 1962; and a study trip to Mexico on a Dutch government scholarship in 1965. Visser was a lecturer at the Royal Academy in The Hague from 1958 to 1962.
In 1968 Visser's work was exhibited at Documenta 4 in Kassel, Germany and in the same year he represented the Netherlands in the Venice Biennial, where he was awarded the David E. Bright sculpture prize.{{Cite web |url=http://borzo.com/en/kunstenaars/v/32-carel-visser |title=Carel Visser (1928) |access-date=2015-03-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402112711/http://borzo.com/en/kunstenaars/v/32-carel-visser |archive-date=2015-04-02 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/carel-visser-2108|title=Carel Visser 1928–2015|access-date=2015-03-13|archive-date=2019-03-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330172635/https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/carel-visser-2108|url-status=live}} In the same year a documentary film about his work was made by Jonne Severijn. In 1981 Visser settled in Rijswijk (Gelderland). From 1966 to 1998 he was Professor at the Ateliers '63 in Haarlem. Visser was recipient of the 1992 Dr A. H. Heineken Prize for Art.{{cite web|url=https://www.knaw.nl/en/awards/laureates/heinekenprize-art/carel-visser-1928-the-netherlands |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525031555/https://www.knaw.nl/en/awards/laureates/heinekenprize-art/carel-visser-1928-the-netherlands |title=Carel Visser (1928), the Netherlands |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |archive-date=25 May 2019}} In 2004 he received the Wilhelmina-ring for his lifetime achievements.
Visser died on 1 March 2015 in Le Fousseret, France, at the age of 86.
Work
Carel Visser is seen as one of the most important constructivist sculptors of the Netherlands. His later work is characterized by the assembly of a variety of materials, such as tires, oil drums, car windows, leather, sheepskin, eggs and so on. He made organized connections, a kind of assemblages, with this so-called great and sometimes small objets trouvés (found objects). Some of his work has been compared to a musical composition in which repetition and variation play an important role.
Around 1960, Visser was focussed on massive closed cube of iron and "slack" cube wire. Visser, among other things, was inspired by nature (plants and animals) which also explains his use of natural materials such as wood, wool, sand, feathers, bones, rope and leather.
His works from the period 1975-1985 could be called environments, as opposed to the more sculptural work as the dying horse (about 1949).
Gallery
= 1950s =
File:Leerdam kunstwerk opspuitend water.jpg|Opspuitend water, Leerdam, 1954
File:Leerdam kunstwerk fontein.jpg|Fotein, Leerdam 1954
= 1960s =
File:20100707-004 Amersfoort - Sculptuur De Grote Vier bij het Rietveldpaviljoen.jpg|De Grote Vier (1962), Amersfoort
File:Stapeling Carel Visser Stadskanaal.jpg|Stapeling (1965), Stadskanaal
File:Salami by Carel Visser 01.jpg|Salami (1966), Delft
File:KMM Visser Kubus 02.JPG|Kubus en zijn stapeling (1967), Otterlo
File:KMM Visser Grote Auschwitz 02.JPG|Grote Auschwitz (1967), Otterlo
File:Oegstgeest kunstwerk beeld-speelplastiek.jpg|Speelplastiek (1968), Oegstgeest
File:Den Haag - When the saints go marching in (1968) van Carel Visser.jpg| When the saints go marching in (1968), The Hague
File:Groningen - De Poort (1969) van Carel Visser - 1.jpg|De Poort (1969), Groningen
= 1970s =
File:Carel Visser Robert Kochplein Utrecht.JPG|No title (1975), Utrecht
= 1980s =
File:Groningen - Vier wiggen (1980) van Carel Visser.jpg|Vier Wiggen (1980), Groningen
File:Vijfstromenland Carel Visser Linneausstraat Amsterdam.JPG|Vijfstromenland (1981), Amsterdam
File:Denhaag kunstwerk zes sculpturen.jpg|Zes sculpturen (1985), Den Haag
File:KMM Visser Z.T..JPG|Untitled (1988), sculpturepark KMM
= 1990s =
File:Nijmegen - Sculptuur van Carel Visser in het Julianapark.jpg|Untitled (1991), Nijmegen
File:Carel Visser Spui The Hague Sokkelplan.jpg|Sculpture (no title) (1994) at the Spui in The Hague
File:Vogels, Carel Visser - bij Brunswijck Eindhoven.JPG|Vogels (1998), Eindhoven
File:KMM Visser Pleinbeeld 01.JPG|Pleinbeeld (1998)
= New millennium =
File:Rotterdam - Moeder en kind (2000) van Carel Visser - 1.jpg|Moeder en kind (2000), Rotterdam
File:Meer - Carel Visser (Apeldoorn).jpg|Meer (2004), Apeldoorn
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline}}
{{Heineken Prizes}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}
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Category:Dutch contemporary artists
Category:Royal Academy of Art, The Hague alumni
Category:Delft University of Technology alumni
Category:People from Papendrecht
Category:Winners of the Heineken Prize
Category:20th-century Dutch sculptors
Category:21st-century Dutch sculptors
Category:20th-century Dutch male artists
Category:Washington University in St. Louis faculty
Category:Academic staff of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague