Jan Steen (II) - The route - Sold

Intriguing, surreal work by the Dutch artist Jan Steen (1938 - 2016). The work is made on a wooden frame, on which a relief has been applied. I do not know the material used, but given the weight it must be a type of ceramic, which was applied to the wooden frame after firing and then painted. This would make it a kind of intermediate form between sculpture and painting.

Steen received his education at the Minerva Academy in the city of Groningen (1974-1978). In his earlier work he mainly chose animal figures, in his recent work the abstracted human is central. He lived and worked in Den Andel. As a sculptor he collaborated several times with other artists. For example, in 1986 he made a group of sculptures with Jon Gardella on the occasion of the village renewal in Spijk. With Harm van Weerden he made De Golf (2000) for the new swimming pool in Hoogezand. In 1978, Steen made a sculpture of a frog for the Dentistry course at Deusinglaan in Groningen. The statue was stolen around 1996. Steen still had a replica in his own garden, of which a new cast was made. This was placed in 1998 in the courtyard of the former dentistry building.