Sculpture and Land Art

Site specific sculptures, land art and environmental projects as well as the freestanding sculpture by the Finnish | Dutch sculptor Lucien den Arend. His work represents his geometric and mathematical approach to his sculpture as well as his environmental art.

An Urban Land Art project in Ede, The Netherlands- Swamp Cypress trees, water and concrete.

His sculpture is based on constructive principles. In the south-west of Holland he designed and made a highway bridge. The sculptor installed a twenty meter long stainless steel sculpture, Opening the Arctic Circle, in Kemijärvi, in Finnish Lapland; this is the largest public sculpture north of the Polar Circle. In the city of Vaasa, in the west of Finland, he installed a monumental red sculpture, Veera. For the Finnish city Kajaani he designed a park - the Suvanto Puisto - which was never executed. The plans and representational drawings are in the collection of the Kajaani Taide Museo (Kajaani Art Museum).

The symposium, East West Forum was a confrontation between six Japanese and six Dutch sculptors; the sculptor was co-organizer of this manifestation in Dordrecht, the Netherlands from 1982 to 1984.

View his sculptures on the cities pages which list the site specific public sculpture and environmental works by the sculptor - public sculpture in the urban space on roundabouts and at public buildings of more than fifty five cities. He designed and built his studio in Zwijndrecht, The Netherlands.
The sculptor lives and works at Penttilä in Kangasniemi, Finland - and recently presented a proposal for a sculpture on a traffic circle at the University of Texas at El Paso..

sculpture park/a>

In the spring of 2006 he installed his large sculptures and constructions around his house and studios in Finland - the permanent exhibition, called POAM sculpture park (Penttilä Open Air Museum) is located in the forests and hills around Penttilä Estate.

PUBLIC ART: A WORLD'S EYE VIEW, Integrating Art Into The Environment	POAM Sculpture Park by moonlight
1983-87 - Marconi Waltz - Homage to van Doesburg and Oud - Rotterdam NL	satellite views of the sculptures
perpendicular construction, bridge - Dirksland NL	gemini tango - Oranjeplein - Zwijndrecht NL
c.y.f. - Houten NL	Veera - Vaasa Finland
Pieter Janszoon Saenredam project Barendrecht NL	surround - stainless steel - Zaanstad NL
gothic II, Noordpark - steel construction	Walburg project Zwijndrecht, Holland
source Ambachtsplein Hazerswoude-Dorp NL	land art 2002 x-ing levee cross (tiendwegen kruis) - Volgerlanden/Walburg)
Marconi Waltz - Homage to Oud and van Doesburg - perpendicular planes - Rotterdam NL	OPAM sculpture Park, Papendrecht and Zwijndrecht, Holland

pages to see

status quo site specific sculpture
circumstantial demarcation - with Vera Röhm
in retrospect - Kajaani Museum of Art
texts
the cities pages on this web
studios
see his works under construction

the planting of trajectory for Rembrandt - 2002 - curvature length 250m - 100 Salix Alba (white willow) branches and three oaks

catagorizing in forms - another approach

The academic approach towards specifying different forms of art is by way of subdivision in terms of art history - terms laid down in the course of the study of art history - such as periods, movements, styles or various other fields into which art has been catagorized. But one can also take a step backward and look at only the forms in which art, and in this case Den Arend's sculpture, manifests itself. He has no preference for any particular material, technique or form of presentation - resulting in a variety of topics into which his work can be subdivided. Although he calls all his works sculpture, and in fact they are, it is sometimes much more clear to classify his works under different - more obvious, down to earth - categories - forms in which his sculpture manifests itself:

islands
gardens
forests|trees
mazes|labyrinths
patios|courtyards
objects

A broad scope of his work is presented in different categories.
You can view his one man exhibitions at Galleria Sculptor in Helsinki Finland and at Galleria Nuovo in Lahti Finland. In the vicinity of his birthplace, Dordrecht, he organized the Open Air Museum OPAM. He presents many of his colleagues in the domain StIvesNet on the web selected-art where he also has a home page. His cv/résumé is an extensive curriculum vitæ with links to it's many items.

The  cities site presents Lucien den Arend's site specific-public sculptures and projects in various municipalities in Holland and other countries where his work has been installed in the public space.

Some of his landscape works have the maze as inspiration. One maze is in the Dutch village of Hardinxveld Giessendam.

One of his concepts for a roundabout can be visited on his domain about the subject of art and roundabouts - rotonde is a monumental roundabout sculpture for Heemskerk.

His encounters with colleagues and personalities in the field of the arts are documented and presented - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Henry Moore, Andries Copier, Truus Schröder Schräder, Kari Huhtamo, Jorma Hautala, Matti Peltokangas, Mark di Suvero, Christo and Jeanne Claude and Donald Judd.

During the sixties Lucien den Arend made water colors and was mentioned as one of Holland's foremost water colorists in the Pieter Scheen Lexicon of Dutch artists born between 1750 and 1950.

Geometrie mit Kopfweiden - Basler Zeitung 26|05|2001 by Marie Luise Blatter - as (pdf file) or (HTML document)

BLOG a weblog in retrospect

site specific sculpture and land art
On various locations mainly in Europe - Finland, Germany and Holland one can find site specific SCULPTURE including LAND ART and environmental LANDSCAPE designs by the sculptor.

items

texts by Lucien den Arend and texts by others about his work

read the article in Basler Magazin 21 - Basler Zeitung 121 (pdf version with illustrations) - LANDART Geometrie mit Kopfweiden (HTML version)

lecture - Die Erkundigung der Grenzbereiche zwischen Landschaftsarchitektur und bildende Kunst - the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich (ETH) Switzerland - other lecturers were Vito Acconci, Magdalena Jetelova, Dani Karavan, Andy Goldsworthy, Bernard Lassus, Peter Latz, Franco Zagari - the invitation (pdf file)

an exhibition by guest curator Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands De Voorstelling - her presence at the opening of the 1999 Keukenhof

Bulgarian decoration in the 1st class Order of The Knight of Madara

manifest - the art economists no longer have the sole power to manipulate art history

Finland experience

potential projects and applications

Having made many projects over the last thirty five years, there are the effects of time - reconstructions - indifference - up to a populist mayor - taking a heavy toll on some works.

if you would like to discuss a subject with the sculptor, e-mail him and he will respond within a day.

Lucien den Arend is AIESM Manager for Finland

sculptures | environmental sculpture and landscape design

its my way