Endless Sculpture

Lia van Vugt was born in 1945 on Goeree Overflakkee. After the gymnasium in Roosendaal she followed the Monumental Design course at the 'Artibus' academy in Utrecht. The lessons in the studio of the sculptor Jan van Luyn were especially important here. From 1976 to 1978, Van Vugt studied sculpture at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, at the time the only postgraduate institute in the Netherlands. In 1977 Van Vugt received a stipend from the Italian Cultural Institute for further studies at the Brera Academy in Milan. Lia van Vugt's sculptures are not primarily conceived from nature, they are independent objects that follow their own rules. The most important rule is that the image can be viewed from all sides, from below, from above, from the side. It is about how the image intervenes in the space around it. Van Vugt strives for a certain 'abstraction'. This is a result of her striving to create an autonomous image, an image that is independent of a prescribed context and that has itself as a reference. A good image slowly emerges. It takes an infinite amount of time and monomaniac attention. Taking something away here, adding something there, it is a matter of millimeters. The manual process is a form of meditation, of talking to yourself without knowing exactly what you are saying. "The image is good," says Van Vugt, "when the eyes can wander over it and discover new things all the time." Lia van Vugt has an admirable and rare mastery of the sculptor's craft. She practices both modeling and heeling. She works in textiles, wood, stone, bronze, glass and other materials such as rubber and plastic.