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Lot Essay
Carel Visser is considered to be the most important Dutch sculptor since World War II. The starting points of his work are natural motifs from visible reality, that he interprets in an abstract formal vocabulary. Until the end of the 1970's Carel Visser mainly worked in iron, creating works that are variations on a limited number of themes, like stacking, rotating, reflecting and linking of similar forms.
The welded iron sculptures Carel Visser made during the 1950's, gained him national and international recognition. He started this period with subtle animal forms which later on would transform into robust abstract constructions, like the present lot.
Double Form I was executed in 1957 in a series of six works, all with the same title. This series can also be interpreted as an abstraction of Two Birds from 1954 (Blotkamp op.cit., p. 71, no. 55). Although the six works have a lot in common, there is a striking degree of variation between them. It consists of two composional groups; one group with a vertical connecting piece in the middle (the feet of the birds), and the other group with a connection on the outside (the wings of the birds). Double Form I has its connection on wings and is clearly the closest to Two Birds.
Blotkamp considers Double Form as crucial in the oeuvre of Visser. Or, as he states: 'By far the most important symmetrical works date from the second half of 1957 and the following year; a series of six works collectively titled Double Form. (Blotkamp, op.cit. p. 91-94)
The welded iron sculptures Carel Visser made during the 1950's, gained him national and international recognition. He started this period with subtle animal forms which later on would transform into robust abstract constructions, like the present lot.
Double Form I was executed in 1957 in a series of six works, all with the same title. This series can also be interpreted as an abstraction of Two Birds from 1954 (Blotkamp op.cit., p. 71, no. 55). Although the six works have a lot in common, there is a striking degree of variation between them. It consists of two composional groups; one group with a vertical connecting piece in the middle (the feet of the birds), and the other group with a connection on the outside (the wings of the birds). Double Form I has its connection on wings and is clearly the closest to Two Birds.
Blotkamp considers Double Form as crucial in the oeuvre of Visser. Or, as he states: 'By far the most important symmetrical works date from the second half of 1957 and the following year; a series of six works collectively titled Double Form. (Blotkamp, op.cit. p. 91-94)