BLVD Ruud Kuijer | Museum Beelden aan Zee | Beeldhouwkunst in Den Haag

BLVD Ruud Kuijer

BLVD Ruud Kuijer

Staffetta

Kuijer is best known for his series Waterworks along the Amsterdam-Rhine canal near Utrecht. For Staffetta (relay race), he produced monumental landmarks especially for museum Beelden aan Zee, this time for the art of Scheveningen, in the form of three monumental concrete sculptures over three meters high, weighing around 3,000 kilos each. The images each have a shape with a large opening, the residual shape consequently reappears in the next image. Each image also has a large undulating shape or another recognizable reference to water, dunes or sand.

As a sculptor Ruud Kuijer is known for his large and small sculptures of concrete. His sculptures often have an architectural starting point: a passage, a gate, a window: Window sculptures, as Ruud Kuijer himself calls these images. He integrates everyday items such as buckets or a children's bath in his monumental works, whereas for small-scale images he uses a lot of disposable material such as hamburger trays or plastic shampoo bottles. He works intuitively, feeling and shuffling with the parts until the whole comes to a surprising and 'in balance' image. Despite the heavy weight of the images, they give a light and playful impression. The works are open and associative, averse to a deeper socially critical charge. He leaves interpretation to the viewer.

Ruud Kuijer plays with the idea that low culture can lead to high art: the worthless can become valuable with the sculptural quality in mind first. Meanwhile Kuijer has conquered his spot within the art world; his work is included in the collections of e.g. the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 1993, Kuijer received the Charlotte van Pallandt Prize for sculpture, and the Fentener van Vlissingen Culture Prize in 2004.

This project was made possible by the Harten Fonds, the Countess of Bylandt Foundation, the K.F. Hein Fonds, the Mebin HeidelbergCement Group, the Sanssouci Foundation, Stokroos Foundation and Mammoet.