S04 city marking - Polyhymnia

In 1972 Groeisymbool  (symbol of growth) received a place in the pond at the then newly delivered main office of the Rabobank at the Pleiadenlaan. One year later the Rabobank presented the work of art to the municipality of Groningen. The sculpture consists of three high pylons that rise straight from the water and are surrounded by fourteen floe-shaped elements that stick up from the water. A fountain spouts the water up along the pylons after which it splashes on the floes. In the evening underwater lighting illuminates the fountain sculpture in white light. Artist Jacob van der Meij described the work of art as a symbol of the earth bursting with the three polyps rising from the water and the brilliant white lighting at night expressing the primal forces and energy of the earth.

In 1876, this distinctive building was the entry for the world fair in Philadelphia. In those days the building, which was designed as a former Groningen state former Dutch High School, was considered the ultimate example for school building in secondary education. A special element in this design by architect H. Raamakers is the freehand drawing classroom above the hallway. This classroom had a glass ceiling with an extended glass dome above it. The former school was designed around 1869 and is characterised by its monumental Neo-classical architectural style. Striking elements include the three semicircular arches above the entrance and the polygonal observation post lined with wood from which the stars can be observed.

Aletta Jacobs (1854-1929) became known as the first woman ever to be admitted to university, and who for the rest of her life championed for women’s suffrage and world peace. In 1871 Jacobs, who was born in Sappemeer, started studying medicine at the University of Groningen. She took her doctoral degree in 1879 and started a practice in Amsterdam, where she carried out important work in the area of women’s health care and birth control. The statue was created by sculptress Theresia van der Pant and in 1988 was placed on the forecourt of the Arts Faculty.

Dutch East India Company Managing Director Jan Albert Sichterman intended to have the most beautiful house built in Groningen, but thought this had failed when it was delivered in 1746. The building was – and is – nonetheless impressive. The Sichterman house’s exterior is richly adorned and its interior was more than impressive, with many paintings by Dutch and Italian masters, expensive services and various art treasures. After he died in 1770, the building was divided into two parts. The balcony above the front door (and from which Sichterman apparently threw coins to the people) is in the Groninger Museum. 

Car parks generally do not stand out because of their atmosphere, but – also thanks to P. Struycken’s illuminations – this does not apply to the car park below the Ossenmarkt square. Using twenty light frames on the floor of the car park, the concrete construction in the centre is spotlit in changing colours. The principle of the colour changes is based on the blend of the colours red, green and blue. As the lights shine more or less intensively, the colours change as they blend. P. Struycken is also known from the stamp on which he portrayed then Queen Beatrix in coloured dots and his design of the colour scheme for the rooms in the Groninger Museum.

The relationship between surface and spaces plays an important role in the work by Danish artist Per Kirkeby, and this also applies to this untitled work at the Emmasingel. The work consists of two rows of six columns connected crosswise as well as lengthwise using arch constructions. Wall surfaces are applied between some of the columns in such a way that a wall is positioned opposite every opening, resulting in a spatial line pattern of open and closed sections and changing light and shadow.

‘Stap’ (Step) is the larger than life-sized and extremely stylised body of a young girl who is hardly awakened and anonymous because of her missing head, arms and hands. She is standing straight and proud. Academy teacher Peter Stut created the bluestone pedestal that is reminiscent of a catwalk. The posture and stylised representation are characteristic of the sculptures by Siepman van den Berg, who is predominantly interested in the patterns of the human body and the abstraction that results when individual features are omitted.

On 27 June 1909 the Academy Building was newly inaugurated after the building was entirely destroyed by fire in 1906. It was built according to the early seventeenth century North Netherlands Renaissance style the patrons used to refer to the period in which the university was established. Sculptor Petrus Ackermans designed five allegorical sculptures. Minerva  is standing in full suit of armour on top of the Academy Building with a helmet on and carrying a spear and coat of arms.  Scientia  and  Historia  represent science and history respectively. Prudentia stands for wise policy and Mathematica  for mathematics.

Most fountains look somewhat gloomy if they don’t spout water, but there is always something to see with this fountain even is the water is shut off. And this was exactly what artist Bas Lugthart intended when he was commissioned to make this design. In his design Lugthart uses the blue tube, as well as water and even wind and gravity as his material. Without water spectators see the profile of a face and the figure completes as soon as the fountain starts spouting: the arch formed by the water results in a different hair style with each gust of wind.

This voluptuous woman with distinctive ultra-long lashes strides down the stairs of the Cascade complex at the Emmasingel. The sculpture was created by Silvia B. and placed here in 2004. Over eight metres high and seemingly an example of beauty, upon closer inspection it becomes clear that deficiencies are hidden behind this exterior.

Artist Aryaan Harshage designed a bluestone floor decoration for the entrance of the public library. He placed two squares at the beginning and end of the access street from which various letters were cut away. The letters are mixed up on the first tile (in front of the entrance gate on the street side) and in the second tile they are neatly ordered from A to Z. The two diamond shapes are connected by two long and narrow bands, and perpendicular to these are two paths in front of the entrance toward the side of the entrance street in the direction of the wall. These lines emphasise the connection with the building’s architecture.

In the 1970s the narrowing of the gap between art and the public was among artist René de Boer’s main themes. This encouraged him to make appliances of his sculptures instead of merely objects to look at, and these sitting lumps are an example of this. Below the sculpture are swivel casters and nylon slide plates that allow the work to be moved, and because the sculpture hinges in the centre its shape can change. The work of art is therefore also an object to look at, lie on and play with. In 1975 Zitknobbels (Sitting Lumps) was at the Grote Markt for a month after which the municipality of purchased it and placed it in the Paddepoel shopping centre. In the late 1990s the sculpture was moved to the Selwerd shopping centre, and since 2011, the bronze bench is located on the Beren shopping square.