Carel Nicolaas Visser (3 May 1928 – 1 March 2015) was a Dutch sculptor. He is considered an important representative of Dutch abstract-minimalist constructivism in sculpture.

Life and work

Visser was born on 3 May 1928 in

Papendrecht Papendrecht () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland, at the crossing of the River Beneden Merwede and the Noord River. The municipality had a population of in and covers an area of of which ...

. From 1948 until 1949 Visser studied architecture at the Technical University in

Delft Delft () is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolita ...

and subsequently from 1949 until 1951 sculpture at the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. After study in England and France, he settled as an independent artist in 1952 in Amsterdam. Carel Visser

In his early career Visser created originally styled iron bird sculptures and had his first solo exhibition in 1954 at Galerie Martinet in Amsterdam. In 1957, when his artistic style became more abstract, a new period began in which he made several trips: a study trip to Italy (Sardinia) on a scholarship from the Italian government in 1957; a stay as a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis in 1962; and a study trip to Mexico on a Dutch government scholarship in 1965. Visser was a lecturer at the Royal Academy in The Hague from 1958 to 1962. In 1968 Visser's work was exhibited at Documenta 4 in

Kassel, Germany Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020. ...

and in the same year he represented the Netherlands in the

Venice Biennial The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest o ...

, where he was awarded the David E. Bright sculpture prize. In the same year a documentary film about his work was made by Jonne Severijn. In 1981 Visser settled in Rijswijk (Gelderland). From 1966 to 1998 he was Professor at the Ateliers '63 in Haarlem. Visser was recipient of the 1992 Dr A. H. Heineken Prize for Art. In 2004 he received the Wilhelmina-ring for his lifetime achievements. Visser died on 1 March 2015 in

Le Fousseret Le Fousseret is a commune and a large village in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. Geography The village lies in the middle of the commune, on the left bank of the Louge, which flows northeast through the middle of the commune ...

, France, at the age of 86.

Work

Carel Visser is seen as one of the most important constructivist sculptors of the Netherlands. His later work is characterized by the assembly of a variety of materials, such as tires, oil drums, car windows, leather, sheepskin, eggs and so on. He made organized connections, a kind of assemblages, with this so-called great and sometimes small ''objets trouvés'' (found objects). Some of his work has been compared to a musical composition in which repetition and variation play an important role. Around 1960, Visser was focussed on massive closed cube of iron and "slack" cube wire. Visser, among other things, was inspired by nature (plants and animals) which also explains his use of natural materials such as wood, wool, sand, feathers, bones, rope and leather. His works from the period 1975-1985 could be called ''environments'', as opposed to the more sculptural work as the dying horse (about 1949).

Gallery

1950s

File:Leerdam kunstwerk opspuitend water.jpg, ''Opspuitend water,'' Leerdam, 1954 File:Leerdam kunstwerk fontein.jpg, ''Fotein,'' Leerdam 1954

1960s

File:20100707-004 Amersfoort - Sculptuur De Grote Vier bij het Rietveldpaviljoen.jpg, ''De Grote Vier'' (1962), Amersfoort File:Stapeling Carel Visser Stadskanaal.jpg, ''Stapeling'' (1965), Stadskanaal File:Salami by Carel Visser 01.jpg, ''Salami'' (1966), Delft File:KMM Visser Kubus 02.JPG, ''Kubus en zijn stapeling'' (1967), Otterlo File:KMM Visser Grote Auschwitz 02.JPG, ''Grote Auschwitz'' (1967), Otterlo File:Oegstgeest kunstwerk beeld-speelplastiek.jpg, ''Speelplastiek'' (1968), Oegstgeest File:Den Haag - When the saints go marching in (1968) van Carel Visser.jpg, '' When the saints go marching in'' (1968), The Hague File:Groningen - De Poort (1969) van Carel Visser - 1.jpg, ''De Poort'' (1969), Groningen

1970s

File:Carel Visser Robert Kochplein Utrecht.JPG, No title (1975), Utrecht

1980s

File:Groningen - Vier wiggen (1980) van Carel Visser.jpg, ''Vier Wiggen'' (1980), Groningen File:Vijfstromenland Carel Visser Linneausstraat Amsterdam.JPG, ''Vijfstromenland'' (1981), Amsterdam File:Denhaag kunstwerk zes sculpturen.jpg, ''Zes sculpturen'' (1985), Den Haag File:KMM Visser Z.T..JPG, ''Untitled'' (1988), sculpturepark KMM

1990s

File:Nijmegen - Sculptuur van Carel Visser in het Julianapark.jpg, ''Untitled'' (1991), Nijmegen File:Carel Visser Spui The Hague Sokkelplan.jpg, Sculpture (no title) (1994) at the Spui in The Hague File:Vogels, Carel Visser - bij Brunswijck Eindhoven.JPG, ''Vogels'' (1998), Eindhoven File:KMM Visser Pleinbeeld 01.JPG, ''Pleinbeeld'' (1998)

New millennium

File:Rotterdam - Moeder en kind (2000) van Carel Visser - 1.jpg, ''Moeder en kind'' (2000), Rotterdam File:Meer - Carel Visser (Apeldoorn).jpg, ''Meer'' (2004), Apeldoorn

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Visser, Carel 1928 births 2015 deaths Dutch contemporary artists Abstract sculptors Minimalist artists Dutch male sculptors Royal Academy of Art, The Hague alumni Delft University of Technology alumni People from Papendrecht Winners of the Heineken Prize 20th-century Dutch sculptors 21st-century Dutch sculptors 20th-century Dutch male artists