'Elements', Voorschoten, 1971, placed in 2020 in Sculpture Garden Frans de Wit, Singelpark, Leiden
'Just like a language, images should convey something and make people more aware of what something is.' Frans de Wit
In 1971, ‘Elements’ was selected for the 11th Biennale Middelheim in Antwerp by the director of the Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller for the selection for Dutch entry to honor the 25th anniversary of the Belgium-Dutch Cultural Agreement. It is a major breakthrough for De Wit being included in the vanguard of modern sculptors by one of the leading curators of contemporary art, R.W.D. Oxenaar.
At the end of May 1971, De Wit and a team of assistants put the finishing touches to the sculpture he was going to show in Middelheim. His wife notes in the photo album: 'You worked through two nights. Totally exhausted at the end […] An endlessly difficult drag through the marshy meadow, all night long, thousands of kilos.”
The sculpture is inspired by the discoveries De Wit made earlier in smaller works that suggest movement in solid steel. ‘Elements’ (1971) is a large translation to 2.25 meters high, 3.15 meter long and 2000 kilos heavy of those preliminary works.
Arising from the lawn, the steel elements bend around each other in slanted lines, where the light plays on the patina from all angles.