After the fire that destroyed works and archive, it was time for a physical and mental cleanup. I donated the remaining sculptures to the Rijksmuseum Twenthe and retired from commercial activity.

It took quite some time to restore a peaceful mental state that I need to create. Part of my personal history was whipped out, and the slowly evolving process of artistic development was no longer visible. It felt like building without a stable foundation.

But again, my love for art history and philosophy came to rescue. I found a renewed fascination for several classical themes and motives that were expressed so beautifully and sensuous in the course of our history. I was convinced that I could rely on my ability for realistic representation of the human body, and on my mastery of the woodcarving technique to tackle delicate themes such as the Pietà or the Reclining Nude.

Since I am much aware of the shifting meaning that the expression of sorrow or pain has in a secular context. Nevertheless, I wanted to show the theme in a context of today. Clothing, jewelry and furniture create a context that is sufficient to suggest its being contemporary. By doing so, the theme is shown as to be universal and timeless.

Reclining Nude is a motive that I always associated with late renaissance and mannerism and baroque.

I used several techniques used in contemporary ‘installation’ art to project a whole filmlike scene onto the concrete walls of a new building. It resulted into a wall-sculpture with big theatrical gesture.