About my works at Bridges 2025

From Bridges 2025 to Sotheby’s 2026 – Anton Bakker

 

These three sculptures, first revealed at Bridges 2025, were created in preparation for a Sotheby’s auction in 2026. One of them will be chosen for the auction. Visitors to Bridges are invited to vote for the piece they feel should be presented at Sotheby’s.

​

My work is rooted in a lifelong fascination with symmetry and perspective. Symmetry, to me, is not just a visual principle. It’s the architecture of beauty, both in sculpture and in life. We are naturally drawn to it. It makes us stop and look again. And in looking again, we often begin to see things differently. That’s where perspective begins.

 

I see this as more than a formal or mathematical pursuit. In a time when differences often shape how we see the world, I hope my sculptures can offer a quiet space to reflect. Sometimes, things that seem separate are actually connected. Other times, what looks entirely different turns out to be the same. A form may appear upside down until you realize it isn't. Some elements invite motion, offering degrees of freedom. Others impose constraints, limiting that movement. These are small discoveries, but they speak to something larger — the value of taking time to explore, to question first impressions, and to see how much depends on where we’re standing.

 

By working with symmetry in knots, links, dualities, and optical illusions, I try to explore how complexity can still hold clarity. A shift in viewpoint can reveal an unexpected unity. All of my sculptures begin with closed paths through atomic lattice structures. There’s something fundamental about working with the underlying architecture of matter. It connects back to patterns we’ve seen throughout history, often in two dimensions, now brought into space.

 

These forms aren’t just abstract exercises. They reflect values I care about: curiosity, clarity, and the willingness to shift one’s view. My mentor, Koos Verhoeff, who guided me for over forty years, instilled much of this in me. His work showed how mathematics and art, together, can offer insight — and reveal beautiful structure.

 

My sculptures don’t try to give answers. They create paths. What we choose to see, and how we move around it, may matter more than we realize.