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It is typically Dutch. Going to school or shopping by bike in all kinds of weather. Child on the back of a bike, huddled under an umbrella. Hands clasped firmly around the handlebars. And that is where artist Frans Kokshoorn puts the viewer on the wrong foot. Because of course that's not possible, two hands on the handlebars and holding an umbrella. The umbrella is the head.

Kokhorn's image is humorous, unpretentious and accessible. That is why 'Ode to the bicycle' on Vondelstraat has a counterpart in Voorburg. The cyclist in The Hague so appealed to the Voorburg pharmacist M. Uiterwijk Winkel that he decided to donate an almost identical statue to his municipality. Kokshoorn joked about it in the Haagsche Courant of 15 September 1995: 'Here are father and son on their bicycle, and in Voorburg we meet his 'lost' wife and the other two children.

The human figure is a constant factor in Kokshoorn's work: in bronze on a bicycle, in an abstract form on a swing, stylised in wood. Sometimes the front two legs of a chair are human legs, so that the figure becomes one with the chair.
And then there is his love of architecture. In 1971, he abandoned an architectural education in favour of the visual arts. But his interest in architecture remained. With 'objets trouvées', old objects, waste wood, beachcombing material, he builds miniature cities on old chairs or ironing boards. These structures were later cast in bronze.

In 2004, Kokshoorn received the first Aart van den IJssel Award, an oeuvre award for professional artists who have a link with Leidschendam-Voorburg. The jury praised 'the constant high quality' of his oeuvre. In addition, the jury felt that the recognisable works in wood, stone and bronze touch the people's hearts, making them accessible to a wide audience. And that certainly applies to 'Ode to the bicycle'.