Louis Davids monument (1983) Mathieu Ficheroux

photo Otto Snoek
About the artwork

Louis Davids was a cabaret performer and song singer and writer. He is known as one of the biggest names in Dutch cabaret. The memorial to Louis Davids is located approximately where David was born. The symbolic aspect, the broken LP, refers to a vanished past of this neighborhood. In 1883, the year of David's birth, this district was the main red light district of Rotterdam. In 1912 the neighborhood was prepared for the construction of the town hall, confirming Rotterdam as an explosively growing port city. Louis Davids became famous after his departure from Rotterdam to Amsterdam with his songs like 'De Olieman' and 'Naar de Bollen'. The spread of his fame was made easier because in those days the gramophone record and radio were on the rise. The choice of Ficheroux for the gramophone record as Louis David's monument is therefore extremely appropriate. It is made of stone, steel and mosaic. In the middle is a portrait of David with the text: “I hope that when I will no longer be there, my songs will always be remembered“. This image helps the memory stay alive. Due to the construction of the Timmerhuis and the redevelopment of the square, the work has been in storage for some time. It has been restored and on Thursday 24 March 2016 the work was placed back on the redesigned Raamplein.

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About the artist

Mathieu Ficheroux (Rotterdam, 1926 - Rotterdam, 2003) studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Rotterdam. In 1969 he was awarded the Rotterdam Hendrik Chabot Prize. Eroticism and alienation formed a thematic undertone in Ficheroux 'pink and brown paintings, his plastic objects and his light reliefs (sleeping pieces) in the XNUMXs. In the XNUMXs he depicted transience in frames and damaged paintings. Since the eighties, Ficheroux again concentrated mainly on painting and drawing.

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