The Successor 

Bronze, concreet 

About this sculpture

Successor
Regret, disappointment, shame. It can all be read from that bent head, those inward turned shoulders and that rag doll as a last hold. Although Successor is a minimalist sculpture – there is no face with sad eyes or a pouty lip and the figure even lacks fingers – it has enormous expressiveness. It is an archetype that is universally recognizable and that everyone can identify with.
Everyone, except the creator Joep van Lieshout. He never suffers from shame and he thinks regret is a waste of time. He must save the world with an overwhelming gesture, crush enemies, leave indelible marks and write history. Yet this sad little man with his shapeless cuddly toy appears again and again in his sketchbooks. As if he worms his way out of the artist's subconscious through the pencil. As Successor – successor, descendant or heir – he takes on emotions that are foreign to his creator.

About Atelier Van Lieshout

Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL) is the studio founded by Rotterdam-based sculptor and visionary Joep van Lieshout. Since its founding in 1995, Van Lieshout has only worked under this name, in order to break the myth of the individual artistic genius. Over the past three decades, AVL has produced a multitude of works at the intersection of art, design and architecture. What these works have in common are a number of recurring themes such as systems, power, sex and life and death. Atelier Van Lieshout received international recognition for sculptural installations with controversial, sinister and playful undertones