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Tag Archives: Rini Hurkmans

Street Art, Sculptures and Statues

We came across lots of interesting structures around Amsterdam.

Against the Tide by Rini Hurkmans  is a memorial sculpture honouring murdered Dutch journalist Peter R. de Vries who was shot on July 6, 2021, and died on July 15, 2021.

 

It’s worth reading this, if a bit of a struggle.

Gerardus Vossius and Caspar Barlaeus were pioneering Dutch scholars and the founding fathers of the University of Amsterdam. In 1632, they opened the Athenaeum Illustre, a city-sponsored academy that challenged Leiden’s academic monopoly and eventually evolved into the modern university I found this in a hidded garden off the book alley I told you about a couple of days ago.

We went to Amsterdam with our friends A&K and just had to find A’s Great Grandfather, Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, 31 December 1846 – 18 November 1919) who was a Dutch socialist politician and later a social anarchist and anti-militarist.  Just learned that we share a birthday!

A translation of the plaque:  Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis  sculpture represents the rise of the labor movement in the 19th century. Prometheus is depicted in the relief. This Greek hero stole fire from heaven and gave it to mankind. In earlier designs, Polet had placed the Greek myth at the center, with a subordinate position for Domela. Only in a third design did Polet allow himself to be guided by the form of a statue on a pedestal. In his time, Polet was an important exponent of Expressionism within Dutch sculpture. Artist Johan Polet 1931

 

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