Noorderplantsoen

About this artwork.

Arie Zuidersma (1925 - 2014) was a painter, actor and musician. Zuidersma started drawing and painting after only one year of lessons at the Minerva Academy. After that year he had seen it, and he made painting his own. In 1954 he met Marten Klompien, also a painter in Groningen, with whom he was commissioned by the municipality of Groningen to paint the places that would disappear or change in the future. Thus a friendship for life was born; they could often be seen together on the roadside, both in and out of city, behind their easels.

Zuidersma's first solo exhibition was in 1959, where he was more or less discovered by Johan Dijkstra and Hendrik de Vries, painters of the art society De Ploeg. Johan Dijkstra wrote a wonderful review in the Nieuwsblad van het Noorden. This allowed him to co-exhibit with the members of De Ploeg, the group he later joined in the late 1960s.

He painted the Noorderplantsoen in 1963. During this period he started experimenting with gouache and acrylic paint. The quick drying of the paint attracted him, especially for painting outdoors. At the end of the sixties and after that he only painted with acrylic paint. The painting was purchased as part of the Visual Artists Scheme (BKR): a scheme through which artists received financial support from the municipality in exchange for their artworks.

Facts & Figures.

• Artist(s)
  Arie Zuidersma

• Year of creation
  1963

• Dimensions (in cm)
  87x71

• Collection
  Town Hall Collection

• Technic
  Gouache

• Floor
  Ground floor