Carel Visser in the Rijksmuseum gardens

Stacking, repetition and symmetry

Carel Visser (1928–2015) had little affinity with traditional sculptors' materials such as marble, stone or wood. Iron was his great love. With a cutting torch and welding equipment, he shaped his sculptures from steel plates and beams.

Stacking, repetition and symmetry give his sculptures a rigorous structure that never feels cold. You always recognise something in them. A spine. A branch. An animal at rest. Visser always looked to nature and searched for its essence. What do you see?

Public space

Much of Visser's work is spread across the Netherlands in public spaces: on squares, in parks and city centres. They rarely leave their spot. In this exhibition, several of these works finally come together, including Jacob's Ladder (1954) from Utrecht, Lake (2006) from Apeldoorn and Big Four (1965) from Amersfoort. The result is a complete picture you cannot see anywhere else.

SIGNAL 1 AND 2

The exhibition also features Signal 1 and Signal 2 (1964), a permanent fixture of the Rijksmuseum Gardens since 2024. Carel Visser created these sculptures in the early 1960s on commission from the then PTT (the Dutch postal and telecommunications service). Like two modern temple guardians, they flanked the entrance to the building.

When the building was demolished in 2000, the sculptures disappeared with it. They only resurfaced later, on the yard of a transport company. After careful restoration, they now stand permanently in the Rijksmuseum Gardens.