Virgin Sun 2020

bronze

Johan Tahon (1965) is a Belgian visual artist. He is known for his special plaster human figures often cast in bronze for outdoor placement.

Tahon has said of his own work: “My sculptures reflect on the world but also on their own being. They are connected with reality, but also exchange ideas with themselves. This discord, sometimes expressed in a double-headed form, is characteristic of my sculptures. I find this split in myself. My images show the condition of ‘man’ as a searching and thinking being. They are sculptures that touch the essence of man, reflect his thinking and try to understand it.”

The bronze sculpture ‘Virgin Sun’ is such a typical Tahon statue. A kneeling female figure, melancholic and searching, looks almost like a sacred figure from the classical sculpture. The statue appears to be pulled back into space. Yet, at the same time, the image like a thinking being forces herself on you and takes you, the art-viewer, by the hand. Tahon studied sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at Ghent. In addition to the museum and private collections, you can also find his work in numerous public spaces.