Children with ball (1962) Joan Bakker
Children with ball by Joan Bakker was originally located in Overschie on the Baanweg. During the construction of the school 'De Lijnbaan', the architect J. Koops had this work made by means of the percentage scheme and placed it in the garden of the school. In 2005 it was relocated to a park on Mathenesserlaan. Children with ball is a small sandstone sculpture on a concrete base. A boy and a girl are playing and have a ball in their hands. This work by Bakker clearly shows that he could work with combinations of hard surfaces and wavy shapes in order to create an exciting image. There is movement and life in the image, as a result of which a lot seems to be happening in terms of looks, postures, contrapost and the fall of the clothes.
Joannes (Joan) Petrus Anthonius Maria Bakker (Oosterblokker, 1919 - 1999) attended the Academy of Visual Arts in Rotterdam, after which he settled permanently in Rotterdam. He was, among others, a student of Herman Mees (1880 - 1964) and the husband of sculptor and ceramist Riet (Maria) Elias. He made it together with Jan Poot (architect at the Municipality of Rotterdam) Liberation Monument at the Brink in Vreewijk, Feijenoord. He designed ornaments for an office building on the Botersloot with great visual power and clear stonemasonry qualities. He could handle the hardest stone types, in which he applied reliefs with attention to the role of light on the different stone types. Several works by Joan Bakker can be found in Rotterdam.