Hendrik de Vries Memorial Stone

About this artwork.

The memorial stone, with an excerpt from a poem by Hendrik de Vries, has been placed in the park, named after him, in the writers quarter of Groningen. Poet and visual artist Hendrik de Vries was born in 1896 in the city of Groningen and later moved to Haren, where he died in 1989.
 
De Vries belongs to the great poets of the Marsman, Nijhoff and Slauerhoff generation. W.F. Hermans even wrote: “If I had to make an anthology of Dutch poetry from the last hundred years, I think I would include more poems by De Vries than by Gorter, Marsman or even Slauerhoff.” His poems evoke a terrifying, hallucinatory world – but also an enchanting, fairy-tale world – and therefore have a unique position in the modern poetry of the 20th century.
 
De Vries' oeuvre was awarded the P.C. Hooft Prize in 1973.
 
Memorial stone text:
 
Everything is a fog
In which man floats on water,
A madness, indescribable,
A dream, from which even the clearest
Awakening always remains a dream.
 
Excerpt from: Life Force (De levenskracht) Hendrik de Vries (1896-1989) poet and visual artist

The memorial stone was designed by graphic designer Harry Fierkens.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Hendrik de Vries

• District
  De Wijert

• Year of creation
  1996

• Art type
  Design, Art in the road surface, floor or ground, Monument

• Material
  Natural stone

• Dimensions
  h 0,10 x b 1,17 x d 1,15 m