Ideal Form, The

The Ideal Form is the latest manifestation of an ongoing body of work by Antwerp-based artist Paul Hendrikse. As with Hendrikse’s related installations, performances and printed works, the book considers the complex legacy of Lode Craeybeckx, the mayor of Antwerp between 1946 and 1976 and one of the main instigators of the city’s renowned Middelheim sculpture park. By sampling the Middelheim’s collection, Hendrikse charts the intricate relations between modernist form, the politics of postwar reconstruction and the performances involved in collecting, displaying and looking at public sculpture.

Published by Occasional Papers in collaboration with Objectif Exhibitions and the Middelheim Museum.