New episode with Guus Jooss: Serious play
Our latest episode is out now
Guus Jooss lives in Holland but comes to Pietrasanta in Italy for several months a year to work in marble.
Guus used to work as a museum teacher and researcher in the Netherlands when he wasn’t creating his own art. Before that, he went to an art academy in Utrecht for a year, but mostly learnt about sculpture through doing the work himself. He also did some teaching and found himself describing for his students skills that he didn’t realise he’d learnt.
Guus Jooss, Aria II, 2020, statuario marble, in Studio Pescarella
When working in marble he considers himself rather old-fashioned as his heroes are artists of earlier generations: Henry Moore, Constantin Brâncuși, Alberto Viani, Isamu Noguchi and Hans Arp, all of whom had a classical, figurative, training but then moved on to pure form. He likes the honesty of one form made in one material.
Guus Jooss, Raggio di luna, 2019, leopard marble from Turkey
A keen swimmer, Guus found that open water swimming strengthened his lungs after what may, or may not have been, a dose of Covid. At the beginning of lockdown he enjoyed the chance to focus on work, but the need for a hug finally forced him to admit that isolation was actually a difficult experience.
Since this episode was recorded in September 2020, we’ve had another winter of lockdown. Like others who moved out of towns and cities during the pandemic, Guus relocated from Utrecht to the countryside where he has fresher air and more studio space.
As always, you can see photos that accompany our episodes on our website materiallyspeaking.com or on Instagram.
Enjoy listening.
Sarah Monk
producer, Materially Speaking