Hanneke Beaumont / beeldende kunst / Inspiratie

Terracotta Installation

Hanneke Beaumont (1947) is geboren in Nederland. Wikipedia: Ze studeerde tandheelkunde in de Verenigde Staten. Ze keerde terug naar Europa en vestigde zich in België. Ze maakte de overstap naar de kunst, ging naar de Académie de Braine l'Alleud en studeerde vervolgens beeldhouwkunst aan de École Nationale Supérieure de La Cambre en de Hogere Rijksschool voor Beeldende Kunsten in Anderlecht. In 1983 had ze haar eerste solo-expositie. Ze ontving door de jaren heen diverse prijzen. Beaumont maakt haar sculpturen in klei, brons en gietijzer.

Op haar website: “I am a clay person; it is my preferred medium. It is strong and fragile at the same time and therefore expresses best what I am trying to say. It also never stops surprising me.

In recent works, I have also focused on cast iron, mostly because I like its natural oxidized surfaces. The inner dimension of the sculpture is essential to my work. I represent the human being, regardless of where he’s from, who he is or what he does. I believe some feelings are universal to mankind and wish to express these.”

Who are we? What are we? Where are we going?
Man’s perennial questions are echoed by Hanneke Beaumont’s work. Many of her figures appear neither male nor female, neither young nor old. They do not appear as portraits of particular individuals, nor are they modelled after idealised human forms.

Physically, they are approximations of human beings, and as such, they provide a way to consider, from a distance, general ideas about the nature of the human race. Their positions are not aggressive or provocative, but neither are they resigned. Fragile but strong, motionless but ready to move, these figures seem in a weightless spatial equilibrium – their human character tied to a string of thought. Dressed in timeless clothes, partly structured material, intertwined with the body, they defy our perception without shocking our sensibility.