Tony van de Vorst, 'Girlfriends', 2014

Location: The Hague center: Spui - Grote Marktstraat - Kalvermarkt

An interesting new work is certainly on the iPad. Thus, the two young, modernly dressed women stare intently at the screen. Armed with a bag, iPad and headscarf, they walk together through the city. This intimate and everyday scene is the subject of The Sculpture Gallery's fortieth pedestal sculpture. Sculptor Tony van de Vorst (b. 1946) is the creator of this colorful yet understated sculpture of the two friends.

Although often seen in street scenes, you rarely see Muslim women depicted in sculpture. Struycken, the initiator of The Sculpture Gallery, saw this as an omission and invited Van de Vorst to create a sculpture of a Muslim woman. She explores the beauty and strength of women from different cultures.

With her oeuvre of figurative sculptures in stone, wood, bronze and plaster, Van de Vorst enjoys considerable national recognition. Museum Beelden aan Zee in Scheveningen, for example, has a bust of Queen Máxima and a colossal red marble Mouth of hers.In all her sculptures, Van de Vorst combines solid craftsmanship with poetic imagination and art historical knowledge. Her expressive use of color harkens back to the vivid images of saints from her Brabant childhood.

Early in her career, Van de Vorst made a sculpture of two friends from the world of the famous nineteenth-century, Dutch painter Breitner for the Prix de Rome (1975). That image inspired the new pedestal sculpture. Two students from the ROC Tilburg posed specially for it. The final sculpture, however, is not a good-looking portrait, but a mix of the models and other visual material. The headscarf frames their faces, giving eyes, nose and mouth extra expression. Thus Van de Vorst, like Breitner before him, has depicted women from cities of today. Beautiful, quirky and strong.

The Sculpture Gallery
For 30 years, Stroom Den Haag has been exhibiting a cross-section of contemporary Dutch sculpture with De Beeldengalerij (The Sculpture Gallery), specifically intended for the city center of The Hague. Originally conceived and designed by P. Struycken, a new work is commissioned annually from a leading Dutch artist. Also this year, Stroom has approached a female artist to ensure more diversity and balance in the collection.

PRESS
GeenStijl, September 4, 2014
AD Haagsche Courant, September 3, 2014