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Then (Damals)

Peter de Kan

About this artwork.

The word DAMALS has been applied to the side wall of the Werkmanhuis (Werkman building) at the height of the second floor, in memory of the Groningen printer and artist Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman, who had his printing business here from 1923 until he was murdered by the Germans in 1945. Artist Peter de Kan was inspired by The Next Call, a series of nine notebooks that Werkman published between 1923 and 1926.

Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman (1882-1945) became a member of the association 'Groninger Kunstkring De Ploeg' (De Ploeg Artist Circle of Groningen) in 1919. 
Inspired by avant-garde graphic artists from central and eastern Europe, Werkman started making art in 1923 with his own typesetting material (letters, numbers, signs, lines and blocks of wood). This resulted in the publication of The Next Call. In these graphic works of art, or "printed matter" as Werkman called them, he puts civilization and tradition under fire - sometimes in fierce terms, sometimes in poetic expressions. The work refers remarkably often to internationally renowned avant-gardists but is ultimately about Werkman himself. For the ninth and final "Next Call", published in 1926 and dedicated to the Serbian avant-gardist Ljubomir Micić – Werkman wrote the poem 'Damals', in which both despondency and resignation as well as longing and yearning for a lost paradise can be heard.

‘Damals als die Erde noch nicht rund war. Damals als die Kunst noch keine Kunst war. Damals als die Ameise noch nicht fleiszig war. Damals als er noch jung war. Damals als sie noch klein war. Damals als meine Mutter noch sang. Damals als es Sommer war. Damals als es noch vorgestern war. Damals als gestern noch nicht heute war.’ 

Part of route.

Location.

Lage der A 13 (zijgevel Werkmanhuis)

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Facts & Figures.