Untitled (1967) Marian Gobius
Marian Gobius has carved many children's portraits and specialized in the figurative representation of man. She made images of women, men, children, sometimes lovely, sometimes even more tough. The images are sporty, active with a number of sculptures of two or three figures, where tension arises by placing them with their backs against each other or, conversely, facing each other, incorporating space into the composition. You can also see this characteristic in these two frolicking boys, who express opposing movements with their bodies, making the composition interesting from multiple angles. In terms of content, they are also personifications of virtues such as play, friendship, togetherness. In the 1960s, bronze (small) sculptures of children and young people were often made for public spaces, especially in numerous school yards.
Sculptor Marian Gobius (Haarlem, 1910 - Voorburg, 1994) attended academies in Amsterdam and Paris and worked abroad (England, US). She worked from the 1951s (when she was awarded the Royal Subsidy in England) until her death. She has also worked as a medalist and pen artist and was a student of Jan Bronner. She was part of the artistic working group 'De Nieuwe Ploeg' that was active between 1959 and XNUMX in her hometown of Voorburg. She worked among a group of younger and more experimental sculptors such as Aart van den IJssel, Rudi Rooijackers and Jan Snoeck, but Gobius nevertheless retained her preference for figurative work and the use of traditional materials, such as bronze and stone. She made many resistance monuments and monuments for women's emancipation. Some of her work is included in the collections of the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam.