Ruud Kuijer

Sculptor Ruud Kuijer (b. 1959) has enriched the landscape along the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal in Utrecht with six concrete sculptures since 2002. The seventh sculpture, Waterwork VII, is to be unveiled in March 2013 as part of the celebrations marking the 300th anniversary of the Peace of Utrecht. The completion of this last monumental work provides the occasion for a richly illustrated publication that documents the project and places it in the context of Kuijer’s oeuvre.
The Waterworks Project is unconventional in terms of vision, scale and location, and therefore unique in the Netherlands. Leading international art historians discuss the work and place it in a broad context of art history. Kuijer is interested in the traditions of sculpture, but above all he has a constant desire to transgress its boundaries and create new combinations. In his lucid constructions in space he brings together the tradition of constructivism, with its clear geometric forms, and the tradition of more intuitive sculpture, such as that of David Smith and Anthony Caro.