In association with the Centre Pompidou (art/culture museum in France), The Hague's Museum Beelden aan Zee are organising a exhibition of the works by the French sculptor Henri gaudier-Brzeska. This exhibition will be the first retrospective exhibition of his work ever presented in Holland.

In 1910 Gaudier-Brzeska fled to England to get out of military service and take up art. During this time his conflicting attitudes towards art are exemplified in what he wrote to Dr. Uhlmayr, with whom he had lived the previous year:

“When I face the beauty of nature, I am no longer sensitive to art, but in the town I appreciate its myriad benefits—the more I go into the woods and the fields the more distrustful I become of art and wish all civilization to the devil; the more I wander about amidst filth and sweat the better I understand art and love it; the desire for it becomes my crying need.”

The confused artist found satisfaction for his artistic craving in sculpture, having been inspired by his father, a carpenter. Over the years, he developed a rough hewn, primitive style of direct carving. This style was created by shaping his objects by hard blows using a heavy cutting instrument such as an ax or chisel.

During his time in London, he met Jacob Epstein and Ezra Pound and became very active in Vorticism, the English counterpart of the Italian Futurist movement.His sculpture took on the more polished style of ancient Greece and the artist embraced a more earthy direct carving. Besides sculptures he also produced very characteristic and powerful drawings. His drawings show the influence of Cubism.

At the start of the First World War, Gaudier-Brzeska enlisted with the French army. He was subsequent;y killed in the trenches at Neuville-St.-Vaast on 5 June 1915, at the age of 23.

Despite having merely four years to develop his artistic skill, his works were a surprisingly strong influence on 20th-century modernist sculpture in England and France. Today his works can be seen at the Tate Gallery, Kettle's Yard, the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris and the Musée des Beaux Arts Orléans. Soon, they will also be seen in The Hague's very own Museum Beelden aan Zee.

The exhibition will take place from 17 September until 12 December 2010.

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