As a small girl, ANNEKE VAN RIJS crept up to red deers and wild boars at the Veluwe -an area in The Netherlands known for its rich wildlife– together with her grandfather. ”I found the countryside fascinating, but at such moments my love for animals grew stronger.” Her roots are in Apeldoorn, were she was born at the 19th of October, 1947. Although she did not grew up in a artistic family, she was notable for her interest in drawing and painting. ”Creativity was just a part of me.”
Anneke had various jobs whereby she could use her creativity. In 1998, she decided to start with a professional course at the ”Wackers Acadamie”, which is a private classical art academy in Amsterdam. ”The traditional way of working, with the help of a model and the study of the anatomy, attracted me.” In order to stimulate her three dimensional insight, she chose at her first year at the academy for making sculptures. ”I had never sculptured before, but the passion was born after the first sculpture. I discovered that it was easier for me to deal with three dimensional works; that is more part of my soul.”
The artist who graduated in 2003 at the making of animal sculptures, works in a French ”animalier”-tradition, a kind of art dating from the beginning of the nineteenth century. ”Animals should remain recognisable. I make random pictures of the behaviour of the animal in his own natural habitat. Natural behaviour inspires me, but anatomy studies, mostly in zoos, remain the bases. Moreover, with the help of wildlife movies, I analyse the movements. A typical movement makes an animal interesting. A interaction between animals arouses the emotions, whereby it is sometimes possible to play, as it were with the pictures and change the field of tension. I start with transforming the inner nature in material, firstly in a model of wax or clay and finally in a sculpture of bronze.”
Apart from the human beings and animals close to her home, such as dogs and cats, she also moulds African wildlife. An example is the Serengeti Collection, which she made after a trip to Tanzania in 2000 and consists of sculptures of cheetah, lions, panthers, giraffe and zebras. According to Anneke, more animals, for instance elephants, will be added to this initial series of sculptures. ”Africa remains engraved in my memory and arouses a strange kind of homesickness. To see a male lion in his own habitat is for me the ultimate happening. He commands respect, irrevocably. And cheetahs, my favourite animals, have the muscles and grace of an athlete.”
The artist, who exposes her works at various places in The Netherlands, motivates why she is attempting to lay down the essence of nature. ”The modern human being is alienated from the rhythmic life, the order whereby every link of the chain is connected. If you remove one link, than the natural balance is harmed and irreparably destroyed. Fortunately there are places at the globe where the balance is tangible. It gives an inner rest. I also experience that during the process of sculpturing.”