ART ROUTE AROUND THE CITY CENTER OF GRONINGEN..

The central hall of Groningen Central Station breathes an atmosphere of more than a century ago: the brickwork in wickerwork of red, yellow and black stones, a high wrought iron lantern and the texts above the passageways. The colourful floral motifs and architectural elements on the ceiling are made of papier-mâché. At the time, this technique was not unusual because of its low cost and light weight. However, its use on such a large scale is unique. 
 
High up in the walls of the hall, on the track side and at the front of the station, there are large stained-glass windows with decorative patterns in five colours. On the other two sides, architect Isaac Gosschalk had tile tableaux installed. The tableaux were designed by F. H. Bach, at the time a drawing teacher at the Minerva Academy. Of the three images on the west side of the hall, the one in the middle represents the Groningen city virgin. She is throned above winged wheels – the symbol of the railways – and various symbols of the city. The Telegraph Service and the Post Office are depicted on both sides. On the other side, two male figures represent Labour and Time. Labour has a shovel in his hand and is surrounded by industrious species of animals such as spiders, ants and bees. Time, with his wings, can be recognised by the hourglass and astrological signs.

Above the roundabout in the bicycle shed, in a crowd of coming and going travellers, a snow house hangs upside down from the ceiling of the Stadsbalkon. In the globe there are 11 perspex plates whose contours resemble those of the central main station. The use of new media in the form of computer-controlled LED lighting creates a play of light and dark in the globe; every now and then the stations aspect changes into a shadow of itself. 

Artist Giny Vos told about her first visit to the bicycle garage: “My attention was mainly drawn to the large round holes in the roof. They all give a different picture of the station above the ground, but often from a strange perspective.” 

Vos was captivated by the contrast and conflict that the Stadsbalkon and the main station seem to have with each other. On the one hand, the modern square gives the monumental station new allure, but it also obscures part of it from view. With Second Thought, Vos mirrors the station from top to bottom, as it were, and connects the two structures underground."

In all of the Danish artist's work, the relationship between plane and space is an important component. The artwork consists of two parallel rows of six pillars connected across by arch constructions. These constructions are also located longitudinally between the pillars. Wall surfaces above and below, in a staggered rhythm, have been bricked up. Because wall and opening are always opposite each other, a spatial interplay of open and closed surfaces and an alternation of light and shadow is created.
 
Kirkeby makes use of elements from architecture, such as walls, gates and arches. His works can be entered and experienced as small buildings; the artist often places them in an architectural context. Sometimes they are located in a more natural environment, such as in the sculpture park of the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterloo.
 
Here in Groningen, the perpendicular structure forms a contrast in colour, scale and direction with the large building around it. The small brick building visually connects the two large wings of the KPN building.

At first glance, this lady meets well-known beauty ideals: she has a fine, pale face with high cheekbones, a hip forest of hair and a piercing under her lip. She seems to be standing impressively high on her legs, in a dress with the huge skirt draped over a crinoline. But the woman appears to be a doll, of which the perspective between upper and lower body is not correct. Her legs dangle under the transparent skirt. She has elevated herself, as it were, in the wheeled crinoline, because she cannot meet the usual beauty ideal of long legs, and moves with prosthetic arms. Silvia B. was inspired for this sculpture by current scientific developments, which contribute to what man can do. The lady is an anti-beauty; a sum of different types and styles. Cascade's postmodernist architecture provides an appropriate backdrop for this. 

 With its large beak in a broad grin or scream; its pointed ears and its long, slightly stooped posture, the bronze statue is reminiscent of a monstrous figure from a fable.
 
 Sculptor Hans Mes christened his creation Dreckschnabel. The work appears to be made up of rags and strips of fabric, culminating in the sharply pronounced, monstrous head. It is striking that Mes combines this almost sketchy construction with a strong sense of detail in posture and expression. He made more of these wonderful sculptures. Man in a Lounger (Man in ligstoel) in the Bataviastraat, for example, shows a figure, also composed of rags, reclining in a beach chair. Later his work adopts other, more abstract forms in various commission situations.

The organic form that seems to protrude from the ground has a capricious surface with deeper sections. The artist made this robust work by welding small pieces of brass – a mixture of copper and zinc – together with welding bronze. Depassé was able to do much of the work in his studio at the time, but for the final composition he had to go outside. The sculpture became so big that it could no longer pass through the door.
 
For a long time the work of art stood at a busy traffic junction near the Westerhaven. That was fine for years until a drunken motorist flew out of a bend and crashed into the statue, severely damaging it. It was returned to its rightful spot after restoration. Due to new construction on the Westerhaven, the statue temporarily disappeared into storage. It's been in its new place since 2003.

Tern on sphere is one of the fifty sculptures that Valk created for buildings in Groningen and beyond. The tern stands with raised wings on the sphere. Stylised pieces of copper plate form the wings, the head and the beak; they are folded over the lower body, as it were. Copper discolours under the influence of outside air, which explains the green colour of the statue and also the roof. The tern forms a graceful and playful reference to the harbour area.
 
From the 1920s onwards, Willem Valk had good contacts with architects and municipal officials and until 1930, he received many decorating assignments on buildings and bridges from Groningen's Municipal Works Department. In doing so, he has left an important mark on the city's architectural sculpture, although he has never been appointed as an official city sculptor.

The garden An oasis in the city was conceived by visual artist Noud de Wolf. De Wolf created a fence made of Corten steel at the front and back of the garden. It shows a decorative pattern of stylised tree trunks, branches and foliage: “a compressed forest”, as the artist says.
 
Behind this fence a winding "sensory path" leads past unusual species of plants to a bubbling spring, which was added to the garden in 2007. Visually handicapped people know where they are in the route by a simple system of landmarks with an increasing number of stones.
 
In the middle of the garden, near a circular terrace, a stone slab with a poem by Rommert Boonstra hangs high on the museum wall. Here the photographer and poet evokes the atmosphere of the museum. 
 
The city garden continues along the stone route to the School of Architecture on the Reitemakersrijge. Again, the stone used is Anröchte natural stone.
 
In 2006, De Wolf placed a Corten steel fountain on the terrace and with this flowing water, the city garden was completed after almost 10 years, according to the artist.
 
The opening and closing of the city garden is taken care of by the nearby Museum aan de A.

High in the wall of the corner building sits a stern-looking and bearded man's head, surrounded by a decorative curly frame. Underneath there is a text that reads: 'ICK.KICK.NOCH.INT'. Head and text originate from different periods and thus bear witness to the street's unique history. 
 
The Oude Kijk in 't Jatstraat used to be called 't Rechte Jatt. Jatt meant street and was derived from the German "Gasse". At the end of this street there was no gate in the city wall (like in the Boteringe- and Ebbingestraat), but there was a building. The story goes that the head was placed here as a facing brick. Archive documents from 1482 already mention this plot, which overlooks the street and is known as "Kijck in 't Jatt”, “a view of the street”. 
 
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the ramparts were dismantled. Because the street was now extended to the current Nieuwe Kijk in t Jatstraat, the house had to disappear. The head was then bricked into this new corner building. The caption wants to say as much as: “I'm still looking into the street”.

With the relocation of the Groninger Rotterdam Steam Boat Company from the Lopend Diep to the Oosterhamrikkade in 1941, the city of Groningen cleared the way for the construction of a permanent Kijk in 't Jatbrug. Immediately, sculptures were also ordered from the sculptor Willem Valk, who made them during the war years. The work on the bridge had to be halted because of the war and the sculptures were stored in a shed. In 1949, construction could finally resume and in 1951, the sculptures were installed.
 
Valk's decorative sculptures form a whole with the bridge design. The life-sized granite figures stand in the shallow recesses of the hexagonal pillars. They are highly stylised and depicted with subtle, shallow notches. The lowest part of each figure is almost in relief; the middle parts are carved a little deeper and are free from the pillars from the chest up.
 
They represent four professions that used to be common in this environment. On the west side, they indicate the supply of goods by sea: the Shipbuilder with his hammer and the Fishwife with the basket on her head. The east side of the bridge refers to the land: Grain Bearer is reminiscent of the grain trade at the Noorderhaven and the Merchant Woman of the trade at the Ossenmarkt.

Lightwork for garage 2001-2005 is freely accessible 24 hours a day. The parking garage is accessible via the main entrance with a bank card or a parking ticket. Hold the bank card or parking ticket in front of the scanner (not too short) and the doors will open.

Parking garages often evoke an uncanny atmosphere. The garage under the Ossenmarkt is dealing with this negative image. In 2005, it was even awarded the Parkeergarage Project Prijs; an award for, among other things, the best-equipped and architecturally most beautiful car park in the Netherlands. The garage gained even more allure with the creation of the lighting work by P. Struycken.
 
Twenty light boxes have been constructed for this work, which are placed on the floor of the garage. These lights in constantly changing colours illuminate the 14.5-metre-high concrete structure that forms the core of the garage. 
 
The principle of colour changes is based on light colour mixing of red, green and blue light. The colour changes occur by making the lights shine infinitely stronger or less strongly when mixed. 
 
P. Struycken describes the operation as follows. “On the basis of those colour changes, a palette was mixed with 16 colours lying on a colour circle. The intervals between the 16 colour tones (green-yellow, yellow, orange, red etc.) are visually the same. The colours give the same saturation impression and, except in colour tone, only range in brightness from dark (violet) via red to light (yellow) and back again to dark via blue-green. Thanks to the infinitely variable mixing of the successive colours on the circle, the number of colour tones used in the work is practically limitless. In different tempos, the blends are done left or right in the colour circle so that the colours change faster or slower in a non-repeating sequence. The continuous transition, the highest speed of which is adapted to the speed at which cars drive around the void, does not have a disorienting effect on the driver.”
 
Behind this dynamic lighting work is an ingenious software and control program that the artist developed in collaboration with the company EuroGenie. 
 
P. Struycken gained fame with his stamp on which he portrayed Queen Beatrix in coloured dots, and with his colour scheme for the rooms of the Groninger Museum.

This is the only monument in Groningen dedicated to a woman, namely to doctor and activist Aletta Jacobs. 
 
Sculptor Theresia van der Pant has struck the robust appearance of Jacobs well: the portrait shows determination. It's one of her late works. She allowed more fingerprints and traces of modelling tools in the cast later in her career. She did not use models but so-called “thugs” photographs, which show the person portrayed from the front and the side. Van der Pant looked at these snapshots for a long time, without making any significant sketches or preliminary studies. Then she worked from memory. In a similar way she also studied living animal models for her sculptures.
 

Aletta Jacobs was the first female doctor to graduate and the first PhD student in the Netherlands. In 1871 the daughter of a general practitioner, born in Hoogezand, started her medical studies at the University of Groningen, where she obtained her doctorate in 1879. She established her practice as a doctor in Amsterdam, where she did important work in the field of women's health care and birth control for many years. Jacobs was also active in the fight for women's suffrage and world peace.

The artist duo Yland/Metz (Lilian van Opdorp/Jos Dijkstra) created a piece of art for the underpass to the Harmoniegebouw concert hall. Part of the Faculty of Law, which is central to the artwork, is located here.
 
The painting on fifteen panels depicts the tense relationship between public and private law. After all, public law, which governs the relationship between public authorities and citizens, is opposed to private law, which governs relations between citizens. The floor stands for private law. The actual columns and wall surfaces merge into the illusionistic painting on the ceiling. Against the background of the blue sky, which symbolises public law, copper and gold-coloured cogs with inscriptions lie on beams. The cogs are made by digitally manipulating photos. They refer to the interaction and conflict between the two legal forms.
 
This artwork by Yland/Metz is part of the art project (Years of Knowledge 1994–2014) of the University of Groningen. This project was started in 1994 on the occasion of the 380th anniversary of the university and ended in 2014 on the occasion of its 400th anniversary.

Step is the more-than-life-sized and highly stylised body of a young girl; barely pubescent and anonymous due to the absence of head, arms and hands. She stands proudly upright. Academy lecturer Peter Stut made the bluestone plinth, reminiscent of a catwalk.
 
The posture and stylised depiction are characteristic of Siepman van den Berg's sculptures. She is particularly interested in the laws of the human body and the abstraction that arises from the omission of individual characteristics. A chemical process gives the bronze its almost black anthracite colour. 
 
The classical look and styling are reminiscent of sculptures from early Greek art. The strict symmetry, which is only interrupted by that one forward leg, which also refers to Egyptian sculptures. The placement at the art academy is certainly no coincidence, because for a long time drawing using models and classic examples formed part of the standard curriculum.

This work by Hugo Hol is the first monument in the Netherlands erected in protest against the nuclear arms race. 
 
In the 1980s, the debate on nuclear weapons and nuclear energy was particularly topical and fierce. In December 1982, the city council of Groningen voted in favour of a motion by the PvdA to create a protest monument. At the time, the Board consisted of a coalition of CDA and PvdA. Almost three years later, on 1 November 1985 at the symbolic time of five minutes to twelve, the statue was handed over to the then mayor. That same day, the Council of Ministers debated a proposal to place 48 cruise missiles in Woensdrecht. The Lubbers cabinet decided in favour of the placement, but in the end it did not go ahead. 
 
The sculpture by Hol consists of a cube frame of dented and crenelated brass containing a smaller cube of black Belgian bluestone. With this work, the artist wants to give an abstract representation of the problem of nuclear armament. He does this by showing an opposition of two geometric forms. The battered brass frame symbolises the imperfection of man-made society. The black cube stands for the originally pristine nature. In the interaction between these two forces, Hugo Hol sees the basis for both progress and the imminent destruction of the earth.

A young man sits in a loose pose on a tree stump. With this work, the artist Jeltsema harks back to a number of principles from classical antiquity: the young man is naked, athletically built and depicted in ideal body proportions. This way of depicting the male nude – with the emphasis on idealisation and strength – was also used in ancient Greece.
 
Frederik Engel Jeltsema was born in Uithuizen, but lived and worked in many different places, including Amsterdam, Paris, Florence, The Hague, Haren and Rome. In Rome, he worked in the studio of the Frisian sculptor Pier Pander.
 
Seated Youth dates from 1916, but he only found his place in 1960. The artist then donated the sculpture to the Municipality of Groningen, together with a female nude representing a bacchante. This last work of art is now in the town hall, at the entrance to the wedding hall.

At the entrance to the Ubbo Emmiussingel, in the open space of the lawn, stands a small bronze statue on a plinth. It is a vast place for this endearing scene of a child playing with a lamb. The skin of the chubby little boy and the coat of the lamb are both smooth. Only the slightly curly hair of the child looks more realistic. There is also a certain stylisation in the form.
 
Fransje Carbasius made the sculpture in 1955 at the age of seventy and the choice of subject is characteristic of her oeuvre. Although she also did portrait commissions and figure studies, she preferred to record children and animals in her sculptures and reliefs. To study the animal models she kept monkeys, birds and rats in her studio.
 
After her studies at the Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague, the artist travelled extensively to France and Italy. There she undoubtedly saw the – mostly winged – children's figures, which are common in Baroque painting. Perhaps these inspired her to create the angelic boy.
 
Boy with young goat was first installed at a school. Because it suffered from vandalism, the statue went into storage at the Municipality of Groningen. It's been on the Ubbo Emmiussingel since 1986.

In this work of art, Kees Verkade has nicely depicted the dynamics and shaky mobility of a cycling lesson. The power of the pushing father speaks from his stooped posture and big step. The small child holds the handlebars of the bicycle with the big wheels but barely restrained. The traces of the sculpture Verkade are still clearly visible in the cast bronze, which contributes to the dynamic character of the work.
 
It is a fragile and vulnerable image, with a history of disappearance and destruction. When the Bondsspaarbank, on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, donated Cycling lesson to the Municipality of Groningen in 1971, it was given a place in the busy Vismarkt. It stood there relatively quietly for ten years, until it was stolen and severely damaged twice between 1981 and 1983. Each time the police found the missing parts and the work of art could be restored. In 1986 the sculpture was moved to its current location, the Ubbo Emmiussingel.

High on a plinth stands the bronze statue of a man with two children. With his head bent forwards he holds his daughter in his left arm, whilst his son walks next to him on his right. The man is a fisherman who is coming off the beach with his children. This can be seen by the nets over his left arm and the little boy's shrimping net. On their left is a cross: the grave of their wife and mother. The group of sculptures was inspired by a painting by Israëls’ To Mothers Tomb, which the Groninger Museum has on long-term loan.
 
Abraham Hesselink created the monument in 1922 in memory of the painter Jozef Israëls – to be seen in the relief portrait on the plinth. The painter was born in Groningen in 1824, where he lived until he was sixteen. 
 
During the Second World War, the work was severely damaged. Jozef Israëls was Jewish, which members of the Dutch National Socialist Movement stated on his statue in the spring of 1943. Fortunately, the debris could be brought to safety. The portrait relief was found later. After the war, the artwork was restored by Willem Valk and unveiled again in 1946. For thirty years, it served as a memorial until Eduard Waskowsky's Jewish Monument on the Hereweg was erected in 1977.

A young but solidly built girl stands with her chest forward. Shes represents the city virgin. She puts her right foot on the head of a lying calf. A band of ears of corn runs across her waist, symbolising the connection between the city and the countryside. After all, agriculture and cattle breeding were the province's main source of income for a long time. Her posture is prominent, but also somewhat strange because of the way she holds her arms back. This can be explained by the laborious production history of the sculpture. 
 
Sculptor Wladimir de Vries had the girl hold the ears of corn with both hands in the original design, but this was not adopted in the bronze foundry. More things went wrong with casting and welding. For example, according to De Vries, the calf's ears were too far back, making it look more like a sheep; certain welds are still visible and parts of the sculpture do not match up well.
 
It wasn't just the artist who was dissatisfied with the result. Initially, many inhabitants of the city had difficulty with the pronounced nudity of the statue. In addition, many people found the girl's legs too firm and her bosom too flat. The placing of the foot on the calf's head also evoked memories of the German oppression, which was relatively recent at the time.
 
Now Bare Bet (Blote Bet), as she is also known, has been one of the landmarks for the city's inhabitants and visitors for fifty years.

There are various works of art by Wladimir de Vries in the city, the most famous being The Foal at the Radesingel, The Bison in the Noorderplantsoen and this Agriculture and Cattle Breeding (Bare Bet). His works – all figurative in nature – were created in the period from around 1950 to 1980. This was precisely the time when a predominant preference for abstract art began to emerge. But Wladimir de Vries continued to work in his original – traditional – style. De Vries' wilfulness also characterises his sculptures from which pride and well-being are expressed.