The umbrella (1994) Hans Citroen

photo Otto Snoek
About the artwork

In 25, on the occasion of the 1994th anniversary of the Ommoord district, part of the Prins Alexander area, the Rotterdam artist Hans Citroen was commissioned to create a work of art. Citroen's first thought was: “On the stage of the amphitheater you just stand in all kinds of weather. It should actually have a nice roof over it.” He incorporated that idea into the artwork The umbrella, a gift from the municipality of Rotterdam to the residents of Ommoord. The work of art was received by the Residents Organization Ommoord, who quickly returned the work to the municipality. But for a long time no one seemed to feel responsible for the maintenance and management of the artwork. In 2013 it became The umbrella transferred via a residents' initiative to a De Witte Bollen Foundation, a foundation led by Peter Buisman that is committed to the management and maintenance of a number of works of art in Ommoord. They immediately asked artist Tom Waakop Reijers to completely restore the work, since Waakop Reijers renovated the adjacent artwork in 2011. The White Bulbs van Hans van der Plas had already successfully restored. On June 22, 2013, the restored umbrella was unveiled by Rotterdam weatherman Ed Aldus.

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About the artist

Hans Citroen (The Hague, 1947) studied painting at the Royal Academy for Visual Arts in The Hague from 1966 to 1969. He then followed a course at Ateliers 1973 in Haarlem until 63. With Bob van Persie he managed the smallest museum in the Netherlands from 1974 to 1976: the legendary The Keikdoos Museum in the Rotterdam Central Station. Citroen became known as an artist with Kunst & Vaarwerk, an artist collective that he founded in 1979 with artists Cor Kraat and Willem van Drunen, and with which he played a major role in Rotterdam's art history in the field of art in public space. In 2010 he made the book with his wife Barbara Starzyńska Auschwitz - Oświęcim. His book appeared in 2014 Auschwitz de Juden disastere about a forgotten platform.

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