Untitled (1965) Henk de Vos
On January 20, 1966, the Christelijk Lyceum Rotterdam-Noord in Schiebroek was officially opened. This school is now called Melanchthon Schiebroek, but the school building still has a beautifully preserved facade relief made by the Rotterdam artist Henk de Vos. The huge wall of 12 by 2.50 meters is located in the facade next to the main entrance and is therefore very visible. It's in the schoolyard. De Vos has made a large mosaic of various types of natural stone, in which a number of figures, hands and natural figuration can be seen. Possibly, as was often done with this type of building-related artwork, a number of school subjects were depicted. De Vos also mixed large and small stones, just as he used the fire in the same way The Welder (1968) has imagined. This self-titled work was created in the percentage scheme; De Vos was commissioned to build the school building. The design of the school is by architectural firm Lokhorst, Koldewijn and Van Eyck. These architects also designed the Christelijke HBS on the Dorpsweg in Charlois, and probably not entirely coincidentally, that building also has a facade relief by Henk de Vos.
In the late 1930s, Henk de Vos (Rotterdam, 1911 – Ribiers, France, 1982), left the Netherlands shortly after his education at the art academy in Rotterdam. He arrived in the Dutch East Indies and was repatriated in 1949 after his wanderings and captivity, after which he started working as an artist in Rotterdam. He was a book illustrator, graphic artist and set designer. But also active in monumental art with concrete reliefs, gobelins, mosaics and wall sculptures in perspex. In 1961 he became a lecturer at the academy in Rotterdam and worked there until his retirement in 1976. He was a talented artist who, among other things, made the relief for the Beurs metro station, depicting a welder.