From Beurs metro station to City Hall

Post65 involves major infrastructure projects, and the Beurs metro station is the hub of the Netherlands' first metro network. A monumental 'welder' was placed on the end wall, an ode to the workers who built the metro. The material is rougher than that of wall art in previous years: large slabs of rough Bavarian granite. Up close it seems abstract, from a distance you can see the worker with a helmet, and sparks of stone.

Art in the sixties is all about technical experiments. The end wall on the east side of the station shows the new light art of that time: Johan van Reede designed a choreography of light – unfortunately now adjusted – that shone on a steel abstract pattern. The composition is full of dynamic lines, that together with the light elevated the movement of traffic flows to art.

In 1978, the Bijenkorf announced that it had been the company that had donated this important war monument to the city in 1953. The pedestal was given a plaque. With this, the company, which had lost many Jewish employees, said that it, like Rotterdam, had been struck in the heart by the war. In the meantime, the empty space around the statue was being built up. The building frenzy reinforced its message: the heart was slowly being filled again.

Large scale is also about The River, with its Twin Tower silhouette. A big city means peering up between the skyscrapers, at a piece of sky. Lon Pennock incorporated that metropolitan sensation into this sculpture: stand between them and then look up. During a redesign of the central lane in 2014, the artist had the black pilasters painted gold, so that they would continue to stand out in the increasing traffic.

In the construction-intensive Post65 period, the city changed enormously. The old Willemsbrug from 1878 disappeared, as did the characteristic adjacent Maas bridges, because the train traffic went underground. Yet you can see those bridges again here, thanks to a work of art: look through the visor. Cold Rotterdam needs memories and imagination, according to the artist trio Kunst & Vaarwerk, who here give you a melancholic glimpse into the past.

In the large construction projects of that time, artists thought about art in relation to the environment. For example, Auke de Vries came up with the ruby ​​red color of the Willemsbrug when he designed this gently swaying Maas image. Horizontal, so as not to compete with the vertical forms of the bridge and the Witte Huis. 'The clothesline' consists of a ring, box, pennant and hanging ball; elements from shipping that passes by every day.

The Post65 period was the time when artists, such as Toni Burgering, elevated modern materials to art. For example, neon, from the light signs. In the evening, five words light up from the roof edge of Nieuw Rotterdam, a now restored office building from 1977. This line of poetry by Lucebert is about cherishing the important things in life. Or, did the words also refer to the insurance company in the office?

For Jan van Munster, light art meant creating energy lines, for exhibitions or outdoors. They seem like independent compositions in space, but at the same time they emphasize the built environment: in this way, abstractly, they acquire an urban development significance. Like this energy flash that, as a beam or arrow, literally pierces the facade of the art academy.

Until 1986, Marten Toonder's Bommel saga, about Ollie B. Bommel and Tom Poes, appeared daily in newspapers. In 1977, the 10.000th Bommel comic strip was celebrated at Erasmus University with orations such as 'Heer Bommel als theoretical economist' and an exhibition at Museum Boijmans. The stately obelisk, with statues of Bommel's comic strip companions, befits the pipe-smoking 'gentleman of standing' Bommel. At the time, he was a recognizable caricature of middle-class men.

This image is the apotheosis of the pop art that Woody van Amen started with in the sixties. In America he became interested in visual culture, logos and symbols that he started making himself: he saw the double cross in 1976 as a textile pattern in a taxi in Singapore. He made dozens of these 'taxats'. Here in the public space it symbolizes artistic freedom.

This sculpture is based on the classic equestrian statue. Only Van de Camp did not choose a horse but a donkey, as a symbol of stupidity. He abstracted it into this orange ball with waves and a crazy tap – clearly madness. In this way, the pedestal statue has monumentality and lightness: an ode to Erasmus who wrote the 'Praise of Folly'. At the same time, it fits in with the need for humor and relativism of the Post65 era.

In 1969, the 500th birthday of Erasmus was celebrated with an exhibition, performances, a market party and several conferences. Because: Erasmus had to become more alive among the population, a desire for historical awareness grew. The original pedestal (the oldest in the Netherlands) was stored away for protection, Erasmus (the oldest statue in the Netherlands) stands on a copy. From here, choose the underpass paths, an urban intimacy that was also a Post65 ideal.

Cabaret artist and musician Louis Davids performed life songs in a moving way. This pop art-like monument marks approximately the location where he was born in 1883. This Zandstraat neighbourhood was later destroyed during the bombing in 1940. The crack in the record refers to the destruction and to the melancholy of Davids' songs about the drama in ordinary lives. Moreover, such 78 rpm records always break in real life.

This two-part artwork contains elements of both minimal art and environmental art, two movements from the Post65 period. The artwork belongs to the police station and turns the resulting interior space into a corridor. Förg defined this with a classical obelisk and a real triumphal arch, but then sleekly modern – a bit like a parody of traditional bombast in old cities. Also because this square itself is clearly not a pompous main axis.

In 1990, Rotterdam was 650 years old and artist Cor Kraat wanted to bring the former city gate that stood here back to life. The city could do with some historical awareness. It became a kind of three-dimensional felt-tip drawing, executed in port steel. The municipality thought it was a good plan, but orange was not possible. In the years that followed, Kraat secretly had the bronze tint colored a little more orange with each paint job – unnoticed, without protests.

Karel Appel was already quite famous when architect Maaskant invited him. Schools fell under the percentage scheme: a subsidy whereby approximately one percent of the construction sum was spent on art. However, Appel's design for stained glass was too expensive. It became glass-in-concrete with the advantage: much more modern. Sculpturally, the colorful glass undulates in the concrete skeleton, an abstraction with eyes of animals or people.

The sports tower 'Akragon' belonging to the Technikon has a characteristic silhouette due to its column-free span. A striking silhouette also has the seemingly wobbly construction by Margot Zanstra. She designed many large abstract sculptures, mathematically constructed in a systemic manner à la De Stijl. Construction company Dura donated the rhythmic-looking work of art and called it one of the 'most expensive pieces of concrete' it had ever had cast.

Right next to the Weena, annex the Post65 boulevard, big business gets a surreal side here. Especially children sometimes get a fright: oh no, a car is falling! But luckily, it is art. Kunst & Vaarwerk provided the city with color and humor like a BMW that sticks out through all that mirrored shiny tightness. A pop art wink to the commercialism of all that activity.

Just as pop art breaks through the strictness of the city, so do the abstract expressionist sculptures of Willem de Kooning. The American star artist was born in the Oude Noorden. Just like his paintings, these bronze sculptures are each one a lump of energy. They are enlargements of female figures sculpted in clay, sometimes with extra limbs, for extra expression. Due to the renovation of the Hofplein, the sculptures are in storage until the end of 2026.

Just as pop art breaks through the strictness of the city, so do the abstract expressionist sculptures of Willem de Kooning. The American star artist was born in the Oude Noorden. Just like his paintings, these bronze sculptures are each one a lump of energy. They are enlargements of female figures sculpted in clay, sometimes with extra limbs, for extra expression. Due to the renovation of the Hofplein, the sculptures are in storage until the end of 2026.

Just as pop art breaks through the strictness of the city, so do the abstract expressionist sculptures of Willem de Kooning. The American star artist was born in the Oude Noorden. Just like his paintings, these bronze sculptures are each one a lump of energy. They are enlargements of female figures sculpted in clay, sometimes with extra limbs, for extra expression. Due to the renovation of the Hofplein, the sculptures are in storage until the end of 2026.

Art for a metro station: it had to fit in with all the speed of the big city, Bouke Ylstra thought and came up with this dynamic design after a hundred sketches. If you look closely, you will see a detailed panorama: two halves of the city on either side of the river, with the tunnel, bridges and metro, and energy circuits touching each other. Ylstra has chipped away the lines in a rock-hard white marble concrete, filled them in black and polished everything to a shine.