Reclining female figure (1963) Joan Bakker
Joan Bakker was a talented sculptor and has made many sculptures for the public space in Rotterdam. In 1963 he made this somewhat abstract stone statue, which he Reclining female figure called. It is a flat plastic made of soft sand-lime brick. Originally the pedestal of the statue was higher, but when the schoolyard was redesigned, the artwork was placed lower, which is nice for use on the schoolyard. The statue is at the entrance of the public elementary school De Kubus.
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.