André Volten; CuZn

Andre Volten will be 75 this year and a new monograph about his work will be published, which Rudi Oxenaar, among others, has been working on in recent years. Oxenaar proposes to Van Straaten to celebrate this event with an exhibition.

Van Straaten wants to accept this proposal. ‘I look forward to the Kröller-Müller Museum being able to give these important moments some extra allure.’ But because a major exhibition on the life and work of Theo van Doesburg is running concurrently, he proposes that Volten realize a small presentation in the auditorium of the Van de Velde wing. ‘The old auditorium has a wonderful central space and a circular route where, in our opinion, your small sculptures, placed on tables, can be shown to full advantage.’

Volten curates the exhibition himself. He works for weeks on the design proposal and the selection of the artworks. All the sculptures are laid out in his living room. ‘My wife and I lived in the middle of the exhibition, as it were’, he says in an interview in De Telegraaf newspaper. He ultimately decides to present around 40 small brass sculptures from the 1990s.

During the opening, the first copy of the monograph André Volten. Sculpture in public space-Sculpture in private space is presented to the artist as a birthday gift. A special edition of the book is also published; this is packed in a metal box.