Gerard Engels

Bronze, the oldest known metal alloy, commands respect by Gerard Engels (1945). 'Bronze is beautiful and, despite the fact that it is a metal, exudes warmth.' After his time at the academy, where the preference was given to abstract forms, Gerard Engels discovered during the restoration of old wooden Madonnas that working with figures gave him much more satisfaction. These sculptures also confronted him with the classical ideal of beauty of the human body: an aspect of his work which regularly emerges.

Gerard Engels has its own way of molding and also his bronzes have their own style: individual, figurative with a high degree of abstraction. In the beginning the sculptures are built up from the torso out of thin plates of hard wax. The construction can finally literally be seen in the bronze statue because the plates of wax do not fit perfectly together so that here and there are open spaces. 'Over and over again becoming fascinated by the abstractions from which the torso is built from, or transforming a recognizable figure to abstractions. Discovering that abstractions contain life. That to me is sculpting.'

Gerard English specializes in monumental- and environment design and studied at the Academy for Industrial Design in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.