Untitled (1988) Sigurdur Gudmundsson

photo Pieter Vandermeer
About the artwork

This image was unveiled on 10 December 1988 by Pim Vermeulen, Alderman for Urban Renewal and Housing. The object is of bronze and stone on a black base. It was made in the context of urban renewal and it functions as a capstone of the development of Crooswijk. Up to and including the 19e century, Crooswijk was an ideal landscape resort, where country houses were built for wealthy people in Rotterdam. Crooswijk became a working-class neighborhood with the development of the port. The Crooswijkers regularly protested poor living conditions. This had an effect, because in the end Crooswijk became a neighborhood with new construction, historic parts and a lot of green. Since the neighborhood is nearly finished, art acts as a marker in the neighborhood and enlivens the public space. Artist Sigurdur Gudmundsson immersed himself in the history of the neighborhood and chose Jeanne Posthoorn, a combative Crooswijk, as inspiration for the abstract image he made of black Swedish granite. It is a ship-like structure with a bronze form on it. The square around the artwork has been redesigned in 2014.

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About the artist

Sigurdur Gudmundsson (Reykjavik, 1942) studied at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts in Reykjavik. From 1963 to 1964 at the Ateliers '63 in Haarlem. Initially, Gudmundsson performed performances, made photographic work and painted. In 1966 he joined the Fluxus movement. From 1978 to 1986 he was a teacher at the Academy for Art and Industry (AKI) in Enschede. From 1980 he started sculpting and focuses on making large sculptures with granite, brick, concrete, glass, bronze, cast iron, lead, tar, peat and seaweed. The artist's work expresses an involvement with nature and landscape. Gudmundsson lives and works in the Netherlands and China.

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