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    Dutch Art, Dutch Designers

    Must See: The Kunsthal Rotterdam – city artists in a lockdown

    By
    Dutch Design - Kunsthal Rotterdam

    In mid-March, the government announced the intelligent lockdown: museums, schools and catering establishments close their doors, events are canceled and public life almost comes to a standstill. How do the residents of Rotterdam deal with the new reality of the “intelligent lockdown”? Three Rotterdam city artists provide a creative image in the exhibition ‘Signed: Rotterdam’. A good recommendation in the Kunsthal Rotterdam, for when the museums can reopen!

    Creation of Pris Roos
    Tradition

    The history of Rotterdam city artists goes back a long way. Even before the Second World War, artists recorded the changes in the city. This tradition is continued during the reconstruction. The work of the Rotterdam city artists is kept in the City Archives. Until the end of the eighties of the last century, the archive gave assignments to artists every year. The tradition was restored in 2018. The Kunsthal Rotterdam City Archives and CBK Rotterdam have teamed up to give Rotterdam urban artists again. The work of contemporary urban artists is also included in the collection of the City Archives.

    Since the lockdown on March 15, the city artists have started their series of sketches, drawings and animations that show Rotterdam’s creativity, solidarity, vulnerability and resilience. In the Kunsthal Rotterdam, Stoks, Roos and Smit pass the baton every seven weeks and successively show a selection of their drawings.

    Pris Roos

    Artist Pris Roos shows his selection of drawings during this period. Initially, Roos does this from her home. At the beginning of the corona crisis, she is in home quarantine. She has placed her work table by the window. From there, Roos draws life in the street.

    “I was happy that I had an assignment when I had to sit at home”, says Pris Roos. “I started to observe for my drawings”. After her period of home quarantine, Roos took to the streets to capture the city in her oil pastel crayon drawings.

    Her work also features the Black Lives Matter demonstration at the beginning of June. “That was the first time that I was among people again,” says the artist. “A big difference from sitting at home all that time.” The work can be seen in the Kunsthal until December 13.