Herk Van Tongeren joined the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture, Mercerville, NJ in 1976 and worked there as President/Executive Director until the time of his death in 1987.  During the span of his career, Van Tongeren served as faculty and guest lecturer at several universities and institutions throughout North America including Rutgers University in New Jersey, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of British Columbia.  Van Tongeren admired the Surrealists, especially Giorgio de Chirico, and he studied the Surrealists' philosophical ideals.  This is evident in his sculpture Teatro XI, on view in the park, and in Teatro XVII, part of Grounds For Sculpture’s Sculpture Along the Way program.  Both works consist of geometrical objects lying in a stage-like setting, and as a result Van Tongeren achieves a false sense of perspective with the placement and sizing of these objects.  There is a kind of emotional detachment the artist conveys through the use of monochromatic geometric shapes.  Yet, there is also a sense of idealism depicted within the works of art--one can imagine Van Tongeren as an architect sculpting his vision of a futuristic landscape.

Throughout his career, Van Tongeren participated in over fifty solo and group exhibitions.  His work is included in the collections of many noted American museums such as the Guggenheim Museum, New York City, NY; the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; National Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Princeton University Art Gallery, Princeton, NJ, to name a few.

Teatro XI, 1982
cast and fabricated bronze, 1/3
66" x 150" x 84"
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc.
Photo: Ricardo Barros.com