Marinus Boezem

Marinus Lambertus van den Boezem (born 28 January 1934) is a Dutch artist.

Boezems work is unmistakably rooted in the 1960s, when Nouveau Réalisme in Europe and Pop Art in America had a great influence on many artists.

Like the Nouveau Réalistes, Boezem and other Dutch artists such as Ger van Elk, Jan Dibbets, Wim T. Schippers and Willem de Ridder were opposed to art that was spiritual, outside society and based on craftsmanship.

The proposals consisted of spatial sculptures made of air and other materials, such as cotton wool and reeds, hardly ever used for art.

Motifs such as landscapes, space, climate, light, air and cartography play a central role in Boezem's work.

The shows (1964–1969), a coherent series of drawings, intended as proposals for installations which could be realized in a museum on order, are characteristic for Boezems early period and illustrate the conceptual nature of his work.

The drawings are simple design sketches for exhibition projects, which Boezem stenciled in multiple editions and sent to people in art circles.

For the exhibition Op losse schroeven (On loose screws) organised by Wim Beeren and Edy de Wilde at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Boezem hung white bed sheets out of the first floor windows of the museum to function as a wind vane, to indicate the changing patterns of the wind and weather, but also to mock the Dutch habit of placing the bedding in the open window of one's house to dry.

In this exhibitions Boezem's work was displayed along with that of other Dutch and international artists including Walter De Maria, Mario Merz, Bruce Nauman, Robert Smithson and Gibertio Zorio.

Because of insurmountable objections from the environmental movement the plan was not realized and replaced by a filmproject of the Hooglandse kerk in Leiden.

Behind him stands a mirror which he holds in uneasy balance by means of ropes slung over his shoulders.

[8] The Gothic arch motif is frequently found in Boezem's work, as in Etude Gothique (1985).

The marketplace where the work is situated lies in the middle of a shopping area and is a place of economic activity (economy).

[9] In 1998 Boezems designs the sculpture Polaris & Octans for the urban office park Brainpark near Rotterdam.

The two poles, sometimes called the gates to heaven, respond to the surrounding, a brainpark where new developments in technique and design are made.

Boezem approached the idea of the building as a vehicle or conveyor that lifts individuals from their earthly existence – sometimes literally, using the principle of the force of gravity.

From a dizzying height they could view the monumental church from a whole new perspective, where the artist had left them a message up on high.