Auke de Vries - without title - Sold

• Auke de Vries is one of the most famous contemporary sculptors in the Netherlands. His work can be seen in many places in the Netherlands and abroad, including the Apollolaan in Amsterdam, the Bezuidenhoutseweg in The Hague and in the Maas near Rotterdam, and in many world cities such as Hannover, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, Manchester, Bangkok, Johannesburg and Aberdeen.
• Balancing volumes. Cubes, cones and spheres strung on steel lines. Sometimes monochrome black, then again with colorful elements. The sculptures of Auke de Vries (Bergum, 1937) embody a tension.
• De Vries draws, etches and paints before he starts making metal sculptures in the 1970s. These sculptures initially have the colour of the metal he works with, later he increasingly paints parts of the work with bright colours such as red, yellow or white. Much of De Vries' work can be found in public spaces.

With Maasbeeld (1982), De Vries connects the Rotterdam Willemsbrug with one of the pillars of the old Spoorbrug – which used to connect both banks of the Maas – by means of a steel wire of 182 meters. All kinds of shapes 'hang' from this wire: a ring, a ball, a rectangular volume and a serpentine-like curl. Because of the place where the work is located, floating above the Maas, the aforementioned ball occasionally comes into contact with the water. This causes the sculpture to move a little, which is also brought about by the wind. The connection with the place where the work is to be located is of great importance to De Vries. He researches the location extensively before he knows 'what the sculpture should become'. The work must play a role in its surroundings.
The attic room where De Vries keeps his studio is packed with sculptures and studies. Many 'sketches' hang from the ceiling. "The driving force of things that have to happen", is what De Vries calls the driving force behind his production. "[It] is as if I am missing something and I am looking for what that is. And that is how things keep coming into being."
De Vries studied at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague (1956). His sculptures can be found throughout the Netherlands and in cities such as Barcelona, Berlin, Bangkok and Paris. In the periods from 1972 to 1986 and from 1986 to 1996, De Vries taught at the KABK in The Hague and at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam respectively. In 2015, De Vries won the Wilheminaring, a lifetime achievement award for sculptors. Exhibitions of his work have been shown in, among others, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, the Stedelijk Museum Zwolle, Institut Néerlandais (Paris) and Galerie Nouvelles Images (The Hague).