by Ek van Zanten
Sonsbeek, te Arnhem, 1954
Private collection
Approx. 175/230 cm
In 1955, Ek van Zanten participated in the third edition of the international open-air exhibition at Park Sonsbeek in Arnhem with a large sculpture, Lady in Chair.
Lady in Chair is a free work. In 1954 van Zanten spent eight months in Brussels on s scholarship (shich he had to collect monthly in cash) as part of the Dutch-Belgian cultural agreement. He worked there in the academy buildings, in fact, in a building that had formerly been the Abbey of La Cambre.
The sculpture was transported, at Belgian expense, to the garden of Miss Timmer, the French teacher of Ek van Zanten and his friend Jan Wolkers, in Amsterdam where an employee of the exhibition organizers in Sonsbeek stopped by. Images of the sculptures by sculptors Henry Moore and Ek van Zanten were in every newspaper. Henry Moore is one of Europe’s most important sculptors, soit’s quite special for a young sculptor like Ek to be included in the same exhibition.
Sonsbeek was founded in 1949, a contemporary art exhibition (quadriennale) in Sonsbeek Park in Arnhem. It was an effort to repair the severe damage the city suffered during World War II, particularly the Battle of Arnhem.