Birds (1959) Joan Bakker
Sculptor Joan Bakker made this concrete plastic Birds, which was placed in front of the entrance of a school on Burgemeester Koningssingel in September 1959. The sculpture is freestanding on a plateau placed on a wall between the entrance of the school and the garden. The statue has been lovingly embraced by the school, through which it has been painted, presumably by students. Due to the applied color, it is no longer possible to see how the composition of the image is intended. Bakker has depicted two piled up birds, looking in different directions, where Bakker has let the line of the bodies in the tails continue nicely. Based on old photographic material, this is a beautiful sculpture in a composition that is characteristic of Bakker's work.
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.