Hanneke Beaumont

Hanneke Beaumont (born 1947) is a Dutch-born sculptor.

Hanneke Beaumont was born in Maastricht, The Netherlands, in 1947. After studying dentistry in the United States, she moved back to Europe, to Belgium, where she still lives today. Beaumont started her artistic studies in 1977 at the "Académie de Braine l'Alleud", then at "La Cambre" and in Anderlecht; she received her first solo exhibition in 1983. Hanneke currently works in Brussels and in Pietrasanta, Italy.

An important turn in her carrier happened in 1994 when she was awarded, for her terracotta sculpture group "Le Courage", the major award of the Centre International d'Art Contemporain Château Beychevelle. Shortly after, she participated in the second Exposiciòn Internacional de Esculturas en la Calle, organized by the Colegio de Arquitectos de Canarias in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where her work was permanently installed. In 2005, the Museum Beelden aan Zee [ [http://www.beeldenaanzee.nl beeldenaanzee] ] made an important retrospective of her work in the Hague (Netherlands). More recently, in 2007, a very large bronze, titled "Stepping Forward", was installed in front of the new headquarters of the European Council of Ministers in Brussels. Many other public and private collectors have manifested great interest in her work. She now enjoys an international reputation with exhibitions in the US, UK, Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Switzerland...

Hanneke Beaumont has said the she is “very much a clay person”, a persuasion apparent in the bold way the sculptor carves her forms (such as “Terracotta 78 & 82”), leaving their surfaces rough and unrefined. Neither man nor woman, Beaumont’s sculptures represent ‘Man’ in the broader sense, she addresses grand issues of the human condition. Many of Beaumont’s figures appear neither male nor female, neither young nor old. They do not appear as portraits of particular individuals, nor are they modeled after idealized human forms. Physically, they are approximations of human beings, and as such, they provide a way to consider, from a distance, general ideas about the nature of the human race.

Beaumont's sculptures are realized in Terracotta, Bronze and Cast iron.

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External links

* [http://www.hanneke-beaumont.com Her web-site]