Penguins (Pinguïns)

About this artwork.

A bronze wire sculpture is attached to the facade of an apartment building. In the interplay between the planes and lines, three penguins can be seen. Two penguins are so damaged that they are missing bronze parts.
 
Mattheus Meesters completed the piece at this former primary school as a commission for the Catholic residents of the neighbourhood. The board of the KOC held intensive consultations with the municipality for several years about the founding of the new school before it was built in the second half of the 1960s in the Selwerd district. Monsignor Van Dijk, vicar of the diocese of Groningen, spoke during the opening of the school.

The sculptor and master craftsman Mattheus Meesters, born in Haren in 1908, received lessons at the M.T.S. school in Groningen at the Department of Applied Arts and Crafts. The famous Groningen artist Willem Valk was his teacher there. Various works of art by Matthew Masters can be found in the city. One of his most famous works is a statue in the Noorderplantsoen, which the artist referred to as Untitled, but which became known as Sun-worshipper (Zonaanbidster).

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Mattheus Meesters

• District
  Selwerd

• Year of creation
  1968

• Art type
  Art in / on a building, Wall sculpture

• Material
  Bronze

• Dimensions
  h 1,55 m