Renowned Limburg artist Frans Peeters, who preferred to be known as a sculptor rather than a sculptor, gained worldwide recognition for his polyester sculptures. In 1970, one of his curved forms adorning the Dutch pavilion at the World’s Fair in Osaka. The VPRO made the film ‘The Round World of Frans Peeters’ about his work, clearly outlining the essence of his artistic creations. Peeters produced numerous variations of this original form.
However, his very first sculptures were small plastic figures, botanical fruit and bud shapes, and female nudes. His big breakthrough came with his polyester spherical forms. He eloquently expresses his love for them by saying, “The spherical form is the culmination of the spatial experience. Standing in front of a sphere, I am faced with a flat surface that bends away from me in all directions, until it disappears from view. I suspect that the bending continues, I experience the other side. I am, as it were, facing all sides at once and facing myself.”
He stated his preference by saying, “I want to create sculptures where the material reveals nothing of the artist. That feeling came with my marble sculptures. People admired the polished, milky translucent skin, while I believe that the sculpture should tell its own story. The sculpture must therefore be stripped of any traces of manipulation. That’s when the artist belongs where they belong: outside of the sculpture.”
But even with the use of polyester, he was not finished yet, as he pondered the question of what color the sculpture should be. Black gives the spheres a certain weight that Peeters did not desire. Pure white dominates the spherical form, which is why he chose off-white.
www.ftn-books.com has sa few titles on Frans Peeters,
