Artwork Data
Artwork Location
Address
Glenn Millerhof, Den Haag
City district
Loosduinen
GPS data
52.05579625153, 4.2396587797021 View on map
Artwork Description
Text
Nothing is more appropriate than a statue of a trumpeter at the Glenn Millerhof, which is named after the famous American jazz musician and orchestra leader. The bronze 'Jazzmusicus' from 1982, which stands at the entrance to the senior citizens' home Loosduinse Hof, is by cartoonist/painter John Bakker. Bakker is not a sculptor and his trumpet player is probably one of the few sculptures he ever made. Coarse shapes and little detailing are characteristic of this sculpture. The construction with lumps of easily malleable clay is visible and tangible in the bronze. But the trumpeter swings. He sinks slightly through his elastic legs and plays his jazz music with enthusiasm. Bakker, himself a meritorious jazz musician, has conveyed this well.
The reason for commissioning John Bakker was the new building of the Loosduinse Hof retirement home. The Stichting Katholieke Verpleeg- en Verzorgingshuizen 's-Gravenhage e.o. (Catholic Nursing and Care Homes Foundation, The Hague) asked Bakker to make a sculpture. A few months after the opening of the home in October 1981, 'Jazzmusicus' could be placed.
Sculpting is an exceptional sidestep in Bakker's career. As a fourteen-year-old boy, he was already painting cinema advertisements for Pertinax in The Hague. At the same time he started drawing cartoons. He was successful with that. He produced several comic books and short stories. Bakker also received commissions from magazines and newspapers for cartoons and from advertising agencies for the production of storyboards. Besides drawings that he makes on commission, he produces free work, which consists mainly of paintings. These paintings are both abstract and figurative. Personal impressions are his source of inspiration while painting.