Marinus Boezem
Encyclopedia
Marinus Lambertus van den Boezem (Leerdam
, 28 January, 1934) is a Dutch artist.
He is known for his radical view of art and his works in public space. Together with Wim T. Schippers
, Ger van Elk
and Jan Dibbets
, Boezem is seen as one of the main representatives of conceptual art
and arte povera
in the Netherlands in the late 1960s.
but he left after a year to continue his studies at the Vrije Academie in The Hague
. At the Academie his interests lay mostly in works on the flat surface. In the 1950s he worked as a drawer and painter. In the 1960s his work became more spatial. He started to work on non-material works, sculptures, spatial objects and works in public space and he became known and respected by a growing public. Boezems work is unmistakably rooted in the 1960s, when Nouveau Réalisme in Europe and Pop Art
in America had a great influence on many artists. Like the Nouveau Réalistes, Boezem and other Dutch artists such as Ger van Elk, Jan Dibbets, Wim T. Schippers and Willem de Ridder were opposed to art that was spiritual, outside society and based on craftsmanship. Boezems works often contain non-artistic objects and parts of landscapes. Some of his works comprise only an idea or a proposal for an object. The proposals consisted of spatial sculptures made of air and other materials, such as cotton wool and reeds, hardly ever used for art. Like a businessman Boezem carried his proposals in a briefcase and travelled to museums and galeries to sell them. Like his contemporaries Boezem strove to bring art outside the walls of the museum. Many of his works were not suitable to be placed in a museum. In 1960 Boezem exhibited part of a polder as a ready made. With this artwork he presented himself for the first time as a 'conceptual' artist .
From the mid 1970s, Boezem began to work out his conceptual ideas in sculpture. In his sculptures the role of the environment played an important role. Themes as air, light, sound and movement, which were the central themes in his early work, remainend leading motives in his sculptures. In the 1970s teaching became also an important part of Boezem's activities. Out of an idealistic belief in art for everyone, and scepticism about the art world, he devoted himself to what was then called 'non-formal education'. In the eighties he worked on several major projects in which the landscape plays an important role. His greatest and most important project in this period is The Green Cathedral (1978-1987). For this artwork 174 Italian poplars have been planted in a polderlandscape in Flevoland. The trees reproduce the floorplan of the Gothic Cathedral of Reims
. Many of Boezem's spatial work can be placed in the tradition of Land Art
. Motifs such as landscapes, space, climate, light, air and cartography play a central role in Boezem's work. In the nineties he made several video works, but also many sculptures in public space.
Especially his work from the 1960s, gave Boezem an international reputation. As one of the first Dutch conceptual artists he had a major impact on the development of art in the Netherlands and abroad.
In 1968 Boezem took part in two important exhibitions which have laid the ground for innovative art movements such as Conceptual Art
, Minimalism
, Arte Povera
and Land Art
. For the exhibition Op losse schroeven (On loose screws) organised by Wim Beeren and Edy de Wilde at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Boezem hung white bed sheets out of the first floor windows of the museum to function as a wind vane, to indicate the changing patterns of the wind and weather, but also to mock the Dutch habit of placing the bedding in the open window of one’s house to dry. In this exhibitions Boezem's work was displayed along with that of other Dutch and international artists including Walter De Maria
, Mario Merz
, Bruce Nauman
, Robert Smithson
and Gibertio Zorio. With his project Boezem brought art into a public space and public space is incorporated into the realm of art. This strategy is typical of the nature of works that were being exhibited at that time.
The second exhibition When Attitudes Become Form was held at the Kunsthalle
in Bern. Here Boezem's work was shown in the company of famous artists such as Carl Andre, Joseph Beuys, Richard Serra, Richard Long and Lawrence Weiner. The intangible and often philosophically oriented works at both exhibitions were a revolution in the art world.
In 1971 Marinus Boezem participated in Sonsbeek 71 Buiten de Perken, an exhibition in Park Sonsbeek in Arnhem
, which included artists from around the world, with an emphasis on site-specific and "audio-visual" works, including film and video. For this exhibition Boezem sended in a proposal for an intervention in nature. His idea was to install an apparatus used in orchards to scare away birds during the harvest season. The apparatus should produce a bang at adjustable intervals. Because of insurmountable objections from the environmental movement the plan was not realized and replaced by a filmproject of the Hooglandse kerk in Leiden.
In 1979 the performance L'Uomo Volante takes place in De Vleeshal exhibition space in Middelburg, during the opening of Boezems solo exhibition Space Sculptures. The body of Marinus Boezem is one of the materials in this work. Boezem is dressed in a sort of airman's suit. Behind him stands a mirror which he holds in uneasy balance by means of ropes slung over his shoulders. A tense balance exists until he can no longer hold the weight and has to let go. The mirror is dashed to pieces on the floor. The Gothic vault of De Vleeshal is reflected in the fragments.
The Gothic arch motif is frequently found in Boezem's work, as in Etude Gothique (1985). This sculpture lies in the middle of a marketplace in the city centre of 's-Hertogenbosch. It is a thirty centimeter high podium of polished granite terrazzo in the form of a gothic arch. The sculpture acts as though it were the shadow of an imaginary arch. It lies at a point where the most important functions of the old city come together. That is on one side it points in the direction of the St. Jans Cathedral (religion), on the other side the sculpture offers a view of the Stadhuis (government). The marketplace where the work is situated lies in the middle of a shopping area and is a place of economic activity (economy). The sculpture has also a social purpose in the urban space because it can function as a seat.
In 1998 Boezems designs the sculpture Polaris & Octans for the urban office park Brainpark near Rotterdam. The sculpture consists of two sculptures which are engraved with fragments of the northern and southern celestial map. They symbolize, as the title already suggests, the region around the northern polestar (Polaris) and the southern polestar (Octans). The two poles, sometimes called the gates to heaven, respond to the surrounding, a brainpark where new developments in technique and design are made.
In 1999 three different exhibitions where held simultaniously in The Netherlands, in honor of Boezem's 65th anniversary. The Kröller-Müller Museum
represented his early work, Museum Paviljoens in Almere showed his landscape-related work. For De Vleeshal in Middelburg Boezem made a new work that contained numerous references to both the early and the landscaping work.
Boezem's recent work are mainly sculptures. In 2007 he was commissioned by the municipality of Haarlem to make a sculpture in honor of lyricist Lennaert Nijgh (1945-2002). He made a marble statue with the letters A and Z, which symbolize the texts Nijgh wrote. The sculpture AZ is placed after the replanning in 2006 and 2007 of the ‘’Oude Groenmarkt’’ in Haarlem.
Leerdam
Leerdam is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland.The municipality covers an area of 34.32 km² of which 0.53 km² is water. It comprises the town of Leerdam, the rural villages Kedichem, Schoonrewoerd and Oosterwijk. The south border of the...
, 28 January, 1934) is a Dutch artist.
He is known for his radical view of art and his works in public space. Together with Wim T. Schippers
Wim T. Schippers
Wim T. Schippers is a Dutch artist, comedian and voice actor, loosely related to the international Fluxus-movement....
, Ger van Elk
Ger van Elk
Ger van Elk is a Dutch artist who works with sculptures, painted photographs, installations and film. His work is generally seen as conceptual art and arte povera. Together with Marinus Boezem, Wim T...
and Jan Dibbets
Jan Dibbets
Jan Dibbets , is a Dutch conceptual artist.In 1994, he was commissioned by the Arago Association to create a memorial to the French astronomer François Arago, known as Hommage à Arago...
, Boezem is seen as one of the main representatives of conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
and arte povera
Arte Povera
Arte Povera is a modern art movement. The term was introduced in Italy during the period of upheaval at the end of the 1960s, when artists were taking a radical stance. Artists began attacking the values of established institutions of government, industry, and culture, and even questioning whether...
in the Netherlands in the late 1960s.
Biography
In 1954 Boezem started at the Vrije Academie Artibus in UtrechtUtrecht
Utrecht is a city in the Netherlands.The name may also refer to:* Utrecht , of which Utrecht is the capital* Utrecht , including the city of Utrecht* Bishopric of Utrecht* Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht...
but he left after a year to continue his studies at the Vrije Academie in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
. At the Academie his interests lay mostly in works on the flat surface. In the 1950s he worked as a drawer and painter. In the 1960s his work became more spatial. He started to work on non-material works, sculptures, spatial objects and works in public space and he became known and respected by a growing public. Boezems work is unmistakably rooted in the 1960s, when Nouveau Réalisme in Europe and Pop Art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
in America had a great influence on many artists. Like the Nouveau Réalistes, Boezem and other Dutch artists such as Ger van Elk, Jan Dibbets, Wim T. Schippers and Willem de Ridder were opposed to art that was spiritual, outside society and based on craftsmanship. Boezems works often contain non-artistic objects and parts of landscapes. Some of his works comprise only an idea or a proposal for an object. The proposals consisted of spatial sculptures made of air and other materials, such as cotton wool and reeds, hardly ever used for art. Like a businessman Boezem carried his proposals in a briefcase and travelled to museums and galeries to sell them. Like his contemporaries Boezem strove to bring art outside the walls of the museum. Many of his works were not suitable to be placed in a museum. In 1960 Boezem exhibited part of a polder as a ready made. With this artwork he presented himself for the first time as a 'conceptual' artist .
From the mid 1970s, Boezem began to work out his conceptual ideas in sculpture. In his sculptures the role of the environment played an important role. Themes as air, light, sound and movement, which were the central themes in his early work, remainend leading motives in his sculptures. In the 1970s teaching became also an important part of Boezem's activities. Out of an idealistic belief in art for everyone, and scepticism about the art world, he devoted himself to what was then called 'non-formal education'. In the eighties he worked on several major projects in which the landscape plays an important role. His greatest and most important project in this period is The Green Cathedral (1978-1987). For this artwork 174 Italian poplars have been planted in a polderlandscape in Flevoland. The trees reproduce the floorplan of the Gothic Cathedral of Reims
Reims
Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
. Many of Boezem's spatial work can be placed in the tradition of Land Art
Land art
Land art, Earthworks , or Earth art is an art movement which emerged in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked...
. Motifs such as landscapes, space, climate, light, air and cartography play a central role in Boezem's work. In the nineties he made several video works, but also many sculptures in public space.
Especially his work from the 1960s, gave Boezem an international reputation. As one of the first Dutch conceptual artists he had a major impact on the development of art in the Netherlands and abroad.
Works and Exhibitions
The shows (1964-1969), a coherent series of drawings, intended as proposals for installations which could be realized in a museum on order, are characteristic for Boezems early period and illustrate the conceptual nature of his work. The drawings are simple design sketches for exhibition projects, which Boezem stenciled in multiple editions and sent to people in art circles. Typed instructions were enclosed with the drawings. In Show V Boezem does a proposal for an exhibition space. In this show, various air doors are placed where people can walk through them. People here have the experience of warmth, air and cold. The air doors arise as currents of cold and warm are blown in the room.In 1968 Boezem took part in two important exhibitions which have laid the ground for innovative art movements such as Conceptual Art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
, Minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
, Arte Povera
Arte Povera
Arte Povera is a modern art movement. The term was introduced in Italy during the period of upheaval at the end of the 1960s, when artists were taking a radical stance. Artists began attacking the values of established institutions of government, industry, and culture, and even questioning whether...
and Land Art
Land art
Land art, Earthworks , or Earth art is an art movement which emerged in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked...
. For the exhibition Op losse schroeven (On loose screws) organised by Wim Beeren and Edy de Wilde at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Boezem hung white bed sheets out of the first floor windows of the museum to function as a wind vane, to indicate the changing patterns of the wind and weather, but also to mock the Dutch habit of placing the bedding in the open window of one’s house to dry. In this exhibitions Boezem's work was displayed along with that of other Dutch and international artists including Walter De Maria
Walter De Maria
-Early life and career:De Maria was born in Albany, California on October 1, 1935. He studied history and art at the University of California, Berkeley from 1953 to 1959. Although trained as a painter, De Maria soon turned to sculpture and began using other media...
, Mario Merz
Mario Merz
Mario Merz was an Italian artist, and husband of Marisa Merz.-Life:Born in Milan, Merz started drawing during World War II, when he was imprisoned for his activities with the Giustizia e Libertà antifascist group. He experimented with a continuous graphic stroke–not removing his pencil point from...
, Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman is a contemporary American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives in Galisteo, New Mexico....
, Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson was an American artist famous for his land art.-Background and education:Smithson was born in Passaic, New Jersey and studied painting and drawing in New York City at the Art Students League of New York....
and Gibertio Zorio. With his project Boezem brought art into a public space and public space is incorporated into the realm of art. This strategy is typical of the nature of works that were being exhibited at that time.
The second exhibition When Attitudes Become Form was held at the Kunsthalle
Kunsthalle
Kunsthalle is, generally, in German speaking regions a term for a facility mounting temporary art exhibitions. Some are run or supported by a local Kunstverein, an art association of local collectors and artists...
in Bern. Here Boezem's work was shown in the company of famous artists such as Carl Andre, Joseph Beuys, Richard Serra, Richard Long and Lawrence Weiner. The intangible and often philosophically oriented works at both exhibitions were a revolution in the art world.
In 1971 Marinus Boezem participated in Sonsbeek 71 Buiten de Perken, an exhibition in Park Sonsbeek in Arnhem
Arnhem
Arnhem is a city and municipality, situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland and located near the river Nederrijn as well as near the St. Jansbeek, which was the source of the city's development. Arnhem has 146,095 residents as one of the...
, which included artists from around the world, with an emphasis on site-specific and "audio-visual" works, including film and video. For this exhibition Boezem sended in a proposal for an intervention in nature. His idea was to install an apparatus used in orchards to scare away birds during the harvest season. The apparatus should produce a bang at adjustable intervals. Because of insurmountable objections from the environmental movement the plan was not realized and replaced by a filmproject of the Hooglandse kerk in Leiden.
In 1979 the performance L'Uomo Volante takes place in De Vleeshal exhibition space in Middelburg, during the opening of Boezems solo exhibition Space Sculptures. The body of Marinus Boezem is one of the materials in this work. Boezem is dressed in a sort of airman's suit. Behind him stands a mirror which he holds in uneasy balance by means of ropes slung over his shoulders. A tense balance exists until he can no longer hold the weight and has to let go. The mirror is dashed to pieces on the floor. The Gothic vault of De Vleeshal is reflected in the fragments.
The Gothic arch motif is frequently found in Boezem's work, as in Etude Gothique (1985). This sculpture lies in the middle of a marketplace in the city centre of 's-Hertogenbosch. It is a thirty centimeter high podium of polished granite terrazzo in the form of a gothic arch. The sculpture acts as though it were the shadow of an imaginary arch. It lies at a point where the most important functions of the old city come together. That is on one side it points in the direction of the St. Jans Cathedral (religion), on the other side the sculpture offers a view of the Stadhuis (government). The marketplace where the work is situated lies in the middle of a shopping area and is a place of economic activity (economy). The sculpture has also a social purpose in the urban space because it can function as a seat.
In 1998 Boezems designs the sculpture Polaris & Octans for the urban office park Brainpark near Rotterdam. The sculpture consists of two sculptures which are engraved with fragments of the northern and southern celestial map. They symbolize, as the title already suggests, the region around the northern polestar (Polaris) and the southern polestar (Octans). The two poles, sometimes called the gates to heaven, respond to the surrounding, a brainpark where new developments in technique and design are made.
In 1999 three different exhibitions where held simultaniously in The Netherlands, in honor of Boezem's 65th anniversary. The Kröller-Müller Museum
Kröller-Müller Museum
The Kröller-Müller Museum is an art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands.-Museum:...
represented his early work, Museum Paviljoens in Almere showed his landscape-related work. For De Vleeshal in Middelburg Boezem made a new work that contained numerous references to both the early and the landscaping work.
Boezem's recent work are mainly sculptures. In 2007 he was commissioned by the municipality of Haarlem to make a sculpture in honor of lyricist Lennaert Nijgh (1945-2002). He made a marble statue with the letters A and Z, which symbolize the texts Nijgh wrote. The sculpture AZ is placed after the replanning in 2006 and 2007 of the ‘’Oude Groenmarkt’’ in Haarlem.
Museums
Boezems work is displayed in numerous public collections, including the:- Museum Boijmans Van BeuningenMuseum Boijmans Van BeuningenThe Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is the main art museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The museum began in 1847 with the collection of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans . Much of the museum's original collection was destroyed in a disastrous 1864 fire...
, RotterdamRotterdamRotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre... - Stedelijk MuseumStedelijk MuseumFounded in 1874, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum for classic modern and contemporary art in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It has been housed on the Paulus Potterstraat, next to Museum Square Museumplein and to the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam Zuid...
, AmsterdamAmsterdamAmsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population... - Kröller-Müller MuseumKröller-Müller MuseumThe Kröller-Müller Museum is an art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands.-Museum:...
, OtterloOtterloOtterlo is a small village in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, in or near the Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe.... - Museum of Modern ArtMuseum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east... - The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
- Empress Place Museum, SingaporeSingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
- Van AbbemuseumVan AbbemuseumVan Abbemuseum is a museum of modern and contemporary art located in central Eindhoven, Netherlands, on the east bank of the Dommel river. Established in 1936, the Abbe Museum is named after its founder, Abbe Henri. Abbe was a lover of modern art and wanted to enjoy it there from Eindhoven...
, Eindhoven - Brooklyn Museum, New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
- Museum of Contemporary Art, ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
- Municipal Museum of Fine Arts, Kioto
- Royal Institute of British Architects Gallery, Londen
Links
- Upstream Gallery representing Marinus Boezem
- Officiële site
- De Groen Kathedraal op Museum De Paviljoens