Untitled (diamond - ruit)

About this artwork.

In 1978, six artists were invited by the municipality of Groningen to submit an idea sketch for a work of art at cultural centre De Oosterpoort. The final choice fell on the design by Ulrich Rückriem. When the sculpture arrived in Groningen on 10 July 1979, it appeared that the two upright triangles – of the original design – had been changed into four reclining ones. Four rough triangular blocks of stone together form a diamond. For more than eighteen years, the statue stood at the then main entrance of the building on the Palmslag after which it was moved to the current entrance on the Trompsingel. At the request of cultural centre De Oosterpoort, employees of Stadsbeheer city management moved the artwork to their storage unit at the beginning of 2007. In 2015, the stones were placed on the canal.
 
Ulrich Rückriem was trained as a stonemason. As a sculptor, he has been making abstract, mostly stone sculptures since 1962. Using drills, chisels, saws, wedges and hammers, he splits or separates blocks of granite, basalt or dolomite. The fracture lines are seldom straight, the surface is usually unpolished and in the sculptures, the traces of the saw are often still visible, with which the stones were removed from the quarries. The properties of the material and the work process are essential for Rückriem; both must remain legible from the finished work. Essential to him is also the place that the work of art occupies in the space or the relationship that it enters into with its surroundings. As far as the latter is concerned, Rückriem regarded his “diamond” as a primal protest against transient, fashionable signs of life: “When the building has long been removed, the stones will always be there.”

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Ulrich Rückriem

• District
  Centrum

• Year of creation
  1979

• Art type
  Freestanding sculpture

• Material
  Lime sandstone (dolomite)

• Dimensions
  h 1,10 x b 5,00 x d 2,10 m