In this talk, Peter Van de Locht will focus on the mechanism by which the artist transforms the experience of his ‘inner life’ into concrete visual experiences. The talk includes images of his Five Ports of China architectural sculpture concepts, and excerpts from a performance recorded in Macau with dancer/choreographer Ling Xi, Manuel Bandeli on tuba and didgeridoo, and the artist himself on bass clarinet.

Peter H. Van de Locht (b. 1946) is a German/Dutch sculptor, educator and musician. Many of his granite, marble and bronze sculptures have won permanent homes in Dutch and German public spaces and in corporate headquarters of Dutch national companies.

The son of a German architect and master builder Mr. Van de Locht grew up steeped in the richness of natural materials, the immense architectural possibilities of public space, and the desire to create inspiring surroundings.

At age 12 Van de Locht determined to dedicate his life to sculpture. He discontinued conventional education and began study with German sculptor Waldemar Kuhn, the first of several important German professors who taught him the basic principles of sculpture. Central to these principles was the idea that sculpture always is the result of an intense spiritual dialogue between the idea of sculpture and the natural qualities of the particular environment with which the sculpture is to be joined.

On completion of his formal education Van de Locht taught at the Utrecht School of the Arts and ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, Arnhem branch until his retirement in 2005.

Apart from teaching, executing commissions, and participating in exhibitions, Van de Locht also dedicated himself to music and is an accomplished bass clarinettist. In the 1970s he studied at University of Utrecht’s Institute of Sonology, an education and research centre for electronic and computer music now based at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. He founded the legendary jazz band Free Music Quartet that participated in concerts in both Germany and The Netherlands. All the while his main work and dedication remained, and remains, sculpture.

Crucial to Van de Locht’s vision on sculpture, and on art as a whole, is the idea that the artist doesn’t express his individual experience, but rather reaches, with the help of his specific individual experience, to express the universal. Van de Locht says, “Sculpture is the incarnation of grace within a perfect spatial order.”

With Spanish neofuturistic architect Santiago Calatrava Valls, Van de Locht believes that both sculptor and architect take inspiration from natural forms and transform them into spatial aesthetic entities. In their application of nature’s principal of repetition and polarity, such sculptures and buildings subtly remind us of our own natural origins, and at the same time, communicate mythological and symbolic meaning. Sculpture, according to Van de Locht in one of his philosophical notes on art, “is a preserved dance of nature. . . . It breeds longing and gives grace to the open mind.” 

Van de Locht’s spiritual approach to art becomes clear in his Five Ports of China designs, which currently exist in conceptual form only. Because of their ambitious scale and dimensions – some are more than 60 meters high and 130 meters wide - these sculptures are typified as “architectural.” Conceived in granite, steel, and transparent glass of many colours, they have entrances and walkable interior spaces like actual buildings.

If realised, Van de Locht’s Five Ports of China designs promise to be a fulfilment of his life-long search for perfect union of spiritual and material order. Of course future art historians must decide, but Van de Locht might well be the first artist to combine, in an unprecedented way, the principles of both sculpture and architecture.

Since his retirement from his teaching post at the Dutch Art Academies in 2005, Van de Locht has lived, worked and performed in the Shanghai area.

Entrance: Members 20 RMB, non-members 50 RMB 

Membership applications and membership renewals will be available.

RSVP: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

www.royalasiaticsociety.org.cn