A logical combination!
Honestly… i must say that i had not heard from both, but because we were traveling a few weeks ago Wageningen ( Hotel de Wereld) and visited the local museum HET DEPOT, in which sculptures related to the human body are exhibited, we came across Joost Barbiers’s his work. Immediately , me and Linda liked it very much. The use of material which is left unworked and partly rough and in most cases in the same sculpture is polished in other parts ,is beautiful.
The museum HET DEPOT itself can be highly recommended too, but i will discuss this in another blog.
After a few days we came home and i contacted through the site of Joost Barbiers (http://www.joostbarbiers.nl) the artist and was replied by his wife who told me that Joost had passed away in November 2015 and that all of his remaining works were exhibited in LAD/ Land Art Delft ( http://www.landartdelft.nl ). This announcement came as a shock, because we did not expect that, but we also learned that the remaining works from his studio were transported to LAD .
Another great project of which i had never heard before. Included in the mail was an invitation to attend the opening of the exhibition of Joost Barbiers, but because of a tight time schedule on that Sunday i could not attend, so i decided to go early and visit LAD. What a nice surprise!….. a landscape with wild flowers, birds and Land Art makes this a beautiful place to visit, experience great art and….walk the dog. The statues of Barbiers are presented in the best possible way in these surroundings and show why this artist is one to have a bigger audience. Rough and cultivated go hand in hand and these sculptures blend into the landscape as if these sculptures have always been there.
Besides the sculptures by Barbiers ( ca. 20 sculptures ) many other can be found there because LAD has a program with artists in residence who work there and leave there sculptures behind.
Conclusion….do not visit Delft solely to see the original scenery of Vermeer, but visit Land Art Delft too and be amazed by the Barbiers sculptures.
Wilfried
