From Westersingel to Wilhelminapier

This initiative by the Rotterdam Resistance Monument Foundation led to a discussion to whom this monument should be dedicated: only to the illegal resistance or to all the fallen? It was not until 20 years later that the monument was unveiled.

Rotterdam is not a city of fountains. They belong in old cities with stately squares. This fountain therefore remains modestly low, but it does offer a poetic appeal to never give up. It is a famous line by poet and author Samuel Beckett.

Not one of all the prominent statues in the center was made by a woman. That was made up for on World Women's Day 2021 with this image of Lemos. It shows a symbol of femininity in a macho format that has traditionally been regarded as masculine. It fits the sculpture terrace that has the theme of the human figure.

In the strict minimal art of the XNUMXs, personal style was forbidden. Art was about shape, weight, space. Minimalist Shapiro ultimately thought that was too limited, as this geometric image shows. It consists of five equal bars, but together they still make a hopping dance.

This much rounder sculpture proves that Henri Laurens was done with the cubism in which he worked for a long time. The back also has a pronounced spine that he had copied from Matisse, whose picturesqueness was the opposite of the much more angular Picasso and Laurens' other Cubist friends.

Carel Visser had already completed his design for a boat-shaped sculpture, fitting for the port city, when it was rejected: had he forgotten that the sculpture terrace had the human figure as its theme? He then designed this bronze mother and child.

'I dream of a sculpture in which landscape, architecture and city become one.' said the Austrian sculptor Wotruba. He carved this sculpture as a whole of cylinders and cubes. He left a rough skin on this limestone, which is full of tiny fossils.

This image was called The lovers, but the lender, the NS, thought that was somewhat inappropriate for the Central Station where it was located. It renamed it as 'Farewell', a more fitting title. Perhaps the NS hoped that the image is so abstract that the public does not see that they are very intimately entwined bodies.

'Stop', sculptor Rodin could say to the models walking around his studio, as soon as he saw an interesting pose. The model then had to hold it for a few hours while Rodin portrayed it as naturally as possible. This extremely realistic sculpture was firmly against classical 19th century taste.

It may look like a Christmas tree, but this Santa Claus is holding something else. In the resulting riot, the indecent 'Kabouter Buttplug' was not given a place in the public space. For years it stood at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Now on the street, it is now enjoying great popularity.

David Bade likes to work with found waste material, such as plaster, cardboard, plastic, polyurethane foam, for his sumptuous sculptures. But for the street it had to be more durable. Employees of the factory who produced this artistic polyester rubble bag nicknamed it 'Anita'. In any case, the title was found material after all.

Rotterdam is always being built, which means that art often has to move. This statue by David Vandekop had to make way for a skate park on the Westblaak. Then it got this location, its own safe perimeter. Made of clay, it refers to the dikes and clay soil in the vicinity of his studio, a barn in Zeeland. It is blue like the sea, yellow like cornfields.

You will not recognize the largest work of art on the Westersingel as such, except in the evening: then the dots light up softly and the entire side wall of the Parkhotel becomes a graphic work of art.

Franz West found this embankment surrounded by cafes a pleasant location to lay down 'sitting sausages'. He had often made quasi-usable sculptures and furniture sculptures: crosses between art and seating object. So are these rolls, although they are not really comfortable. They are just too much art for that.

This sweet ponytailed girl garnered an unexpected amount of criticism. Picasso was friends with sculptor Carl Nesjar, who developed a clever concrete technique to translate his drawings into sculptures. But, some said, this is not a sculpture: it is an unfolded drawing and that does not belong on the street.

This neat-looking tram stop is, in fact, a kind of protest art. There was an ordinary tram stop that was discontinued, to the dissatisfaction of the art institutions and shopkeepers in the street. John Blake then designed a stark white tram stop without advertisements. It is white, as galleries are also called 'white cubes'. The neck next to it refers to shop windows from jewelry stores and is also museum-like white.

The Italian movement Arte Povera means art from poor materials, such as straw, wood, fruit, often combined into symbiotic relationships. Giuseppe Penone does this with trees and cites the power of nature: he made a bronze tree, aided by four real trees. They grow up around this bronze, which leaves traces in their bark.

Sculptor Richard Artschwager did not feel like explaining his untitled sculpture, which he made in 1988 for the major art manifestation 'Beelden in de stad'. In the catalog he mentioned some seasonal catchphrases such as flower and ice cream, and thus sends the viewer in a daze: find out for yourself. It's just art.

Since the 16th century Renaissance love for the golden section, the circle has been regarded as the most perfect form in art. This sculpture was financed from a budget for major underground sewage works – an invisible but dirty task, topped off with an unapproachable shiny object. But with a bite out, to break through that perfection.

The Austrian architects Coop Himmelb(l)au were radically innovative in the XNUMXs. For example, they designed pneumatic vests with video helmets that forced viewers to watch pornography and violence, where the vest hit the kidneys and spread perfume and blood odors. Then this image is not too bad.

This is a double recycled artwork. It is made from windmills, which provide clean energy but whose blades are completely non-degradable. First it was transformed into an artistic sitting sculpture, and later renamed a monument for sexual and gender diversity with rainbow colors.

This is perhaps the most invisible work of art in Rotterdam. Literal. Listen carefully and you will hear the sounds of a piece of music by composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562 – 1621) under the bridge, provided you listen at the right place and at the right time.

Henk Visch and the city of Rotterdam like each other: he has a total of six statues in the city. They are mostly human and animal figures, except for this Marathon sculpture. Yet this is not as abstract as it seems: it is a bunch of flowers. For the winner of the marathon.

War memorials often provoked controversy after the war. Bee The bow the discussion was not so much about who should be commemorated, namely those who fell at sea, but about the form. Too abstract, just such a ship's bow, so after eight years of wrangling, a bronze sculpture group had to be built around it.

In 2006, artist Niels Post illegally hung a mailbox on the Erasmus Bridge and asked people to send him mail. It still worked. Until the municipality asked him to stop. As a reminder, he posted a line of spam messages—another kind of clandestine post.

In Rotterdam this may not be the best known image, but elsewhere it is different. The load carrier by sculptor Han Rehm was made for a port company that used it for its stationery and decals as far away as China and Africa. This statue originally stood on a silo in Katendrecht.

Filmhuis LantarenVenster is housed in the New Orleans building designed by architect Álvaro Zisa from 2010. In the shop window you can see a light artwork consisting of LED lighting on which an animation of a moving horse can be seen. The stop-motion technique, based on the early photography of Eadweard Muybridge, has been translated into a software-driven installation by artist Giny Vos in collaboration with InventDesign. Light Gig is an ode to early celluloid including scratches and flashes of light.

For conceptual photographer Jeff Wall, this monument is unique in his oeuvre. It symbolizes the millions of Europeans who left here for America in the 19th and 20th centuries to build a new life there. In the evening, the lonely lamppost casts light over the forgotten luggage, symbol of those left behind.

At the beginning of this century a tube with a charter was discovered in the quay wall. They were bricked in 1891 behind a memorial stone, unveiled by the then 10-year-old Queen Wilhelmina. In 2013, Arnoud Holleman had a time capsule encapsulated with messages for the future. It will be opened on May 30, 2135.

Here the world is a surrealistic painting: a door is open, but where to? This work of art from the FENIX Land Mover Museum on Katendrecht across the street is also a symbol of the many Europeans who left this quay for the unknown. But you can also go through the door on the other side. At least, as long as the door to Europe is not slammed shut.