Joep van Lieshout - Twee grote AVL-mannen

These two figures that seem to greet each other on a square where traffic from the inland and that of the coastal road cross one another have a clear symbolic value.

These statues’ colour and monumentality bring a certain warmth and generosity to a place that is not very attractive from an urban development point of view.  Unreal, though fascinating; provoking, and nevertheless also a recognisable beacon in the municipality.

Purchased in 2000.

About the Artist:

Van Lieshout studied at the Academy of Modern Art in Rotterdam; after that in Haarlem and Nice. This super individualist, as he calls himself, received several awards, amongst which the Prize of Rome 1992, and exhibits his work all over the world.

The last years, he made containers into field hospitals, distilleries, slaughterhouses or weapon workshops, built compost toilets and wood-burning stoves. He is especially well-known for his polyester structures (3 to 9 m high).

His work is a combination of playful humour and seriousness, recognisability and abstraction, warmth and detachment.