Artwork Data

Title

Zonder titel

Artist

Jeroen Voskuyl

Year

1957

Material

Steen, mozaïek

Artwork Location

Address

Zuidlarenstraat, Den Haag

City district

Escamp

GPS data

52.051650238382, 4.2698166370483 View on map

To be found on route

Cycling route Reconstruction Art Escamp

Artwork Description

Text

With strips of dark and light grey stone, a space has been sketched on the end wall of the former Zuiderpark-HBS, in which blue areas loom up like windows. Human figures seem to look out through them. Jeroen Voskuyl made this mosaic in 1957 for the - at the time - new school building.

Voskuyl learned the principles of the trade at the Kunstnijverheidsschool Kunstbeoefening in Arnhem. In 1933, he continued his studies at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. There he was taught by the influential artist Heinrich Campendonk (1889-1957). This professor instilled in him a love of monumental art. Through Campendonk, Voskuyl was commissioned to submit work for the exhibition of religious art at the World Fair in Paris in 1937. His mosaic received the Silver Medal at the time. More commissions for monumental work followed.

Whether monumental or free work, Voskuyl's preference was for landscapes and figure pieces, often based on a mythological story. Until the end of the 1940s, his images were complex, overloaded and figurative. He used colour sparingly. This changed in the 1950s. By then, colour had become an independent visual element and the images were quieter: he placed only a few objects in a clear space.

This can also be seen in the mosaic in front of the former Haagse HBS. This work of art probably came about in close consultation with architect S. Schamhart (1919-2007). Especially the way in which the necessary ventilation grids have been incorporated as a natural element in the representation points to this. The diagonal lines and the ladders in the composition, and certainly the yellow, tapering band of tiles, provide dynamism. The depiction refers to reconstruction and the importance of education. All this makes this mosaic a typical example of reconstruction art.

Close