Carolein Smit
(Amersfoort 1960)
Man van Smarten (Man of Sorrow) (2007)
Glazed ceramic, H. 50.7 cm
Provenance:
– Flatland Gallery, Utrecht (2007) (incl. copy of invoice)
– Private collection, the Netherlands
Literature:
H. Tupan, R. Liefkes, O. Thormann F. Achten, Carolein Smit: WORKS, 2018, W Books, Zwolle, p. 156 (ill.)
Exhibited:
Kunsthal Rotterdam, Carolein Smit – Huid en haar, 16 January – 11 April 2010
Note:
Carolein Smit works figuratively and makes minutely detailed and decorated sculptures of, amongst others, dogs, rats, hares, skeletons, cats and babies. However, the creatures all have human features. Using sculptural forms instead of paint, Smit employs transgressive beauty that contradicts commonly held convictions about what makes something appealing. Her fascination with contrasts, the ugly but adorable or the frightening but fragile, provides a reminder of the vulnerability and impermanence of life, and the inevitability of death. In 1993, Smit was awarded an honorary mention at the Prix de Rome awards, after which in 1999 she was awarded the Keranova-award for autonomous ceramics and a year later the Gemeente Breda Oeuvre award. In 2010, the exposition Huid en Haar took place in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, and she was given much praise for her contribution to the sculpture park Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri by the Swiss artist Daniel Spoerri in Seggiano.