Monica Dael artwork • statue • sculpture • previously for sale The embrace

The Rotterdam sculptor Monica van Dael often chooses female figures as subjects, but also male torsos or animals, especially birds. She often performs her work in stone, from bluestone and limestone to alabaster and serpentine, which she works according to the 'taille directe' technique. With this way of working, in which she works directly into the stone without prior studies or sketches, she puts expressiveness and emotion into her sculptures. She also casts sculptures in bronze in small quantities. Monica van Dael studied at the Vrije Akademie in Rotterdam and then took lessons in the technique of 'carving' with the Rotterdam sculptor Anton Geerlings. She simplifies her subjects, which always remain recognizable, creating a tension between reality and imagination. The artist lived in France for quite some time until she returned to the Netherlands in 1988.