Artworks
Public space

“Just like a language, I use elements and their magnitude to create an awareness of being.” Frans de Wit.
Spread across the Netherlands, there are 39 statues made by Frans de Wit in public spaces that can be seen. From land art to wall ornaments these massive works in elementary forms usually appear buoyant, mobile, effervescent.
His most famous works are the ‘Middle screen of the Calland Canal Windscreen’, ‘Square Island in the Lake’ in Rotterdam and ‘Climbing Wall and Double Disc with Stairs in Coarse Rubble Hill’ in Spaarnwoude, which played a prominent role in the title sequence in the Dutch TV program ‘Krasse Knarren’. It has since been referred to as the ‘the staircase of Van Kooten and De Bie.’
Independent work

Frans de Wit created a lot of independent works. Often these pieces are a preview of, or a result of, a large project. In early work, nature is present and Frans celebrates the everyday in images that pair abstraction with realism and play with a mysterious inside and outside. His artworks are mostly abstract.
[these works all depicted on this page, with title and year underneath in the order below (from recent to older, from 15 to 1)]
Double block 2002
Untitled three volumes, 2001
Stain, 2001
Ring 13 boxes, 1994/1995
Water, 1991
Untitled, 1991
Twin image or Large Form, 1989
Field II, 1988
Image of the Sea, 1987
Untitled, four parts (high stools), 1980
Structure 1969
Apple box, 1969
Steel sculpture, 1968
Temple I, 1967
Drawings

Frans de Wit’s drawings display elementary shapes that have been applied on paper with large gestures with pressed charcoal. In deep black, forms are explored in light, dark and woolly swept areas. Authentic sculptor’s drawings in which volume and changing perspectives of the form are the main motives.
In 1991, at an exhibition in Galerie Langenberg in Amsterdam, de Wit presents his sculpture series ‘Field 1’ (1988) and ‘Seven drawings’ in the vicinity of each other. This combination stimulated the public to discover similarities and differences in both series.

De Wit had made a trip to Romania, following the footsteps of sculptor Brancusi (1876-1957) whom he admired. The mountain and hilly landscapes loomed out of the darkness. The archetypes of the landscape and the ancient structures he experienced in Romania and other trips throughout Europe, inspired the sculptor to creating his visual language of basic forms in his art.

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