Artwork of the Day
With the Artwork of the Day we connect a work of art to one of the concert programmes. Sometimes the link is obvious, sometimes surprising or unexpected. Today’s choice is a true Utrecht landmark: Barry Flanagan’s Thinker on a Rock (1997).
Anyone who has passed through the Neude in the past twenty years will have noticed him: a bronze hare perched high on a rock, paws tucked beneath him, long ears sharply pricked. He has stood here since 2002, though his arrival was not without debate. The sculpture was created in 1997, but the Utrecht city council argued fiercely over whether and where it belonged in the city. A public referendum finally tipped the balance, and since then the hare has been fully embraced. In the cold winter months he is sometimes given a scarf, as if he were a fellow townsman.
At first sight Thinker on a Rock seems like a joke – a witty nod to Rodin’s famous Thinker – but it carries more. This animal suddenly appears conscious of its own existence: a being that thinks, dreams, and perhaps even philosophises.
That is what makes this sculpture so fascinating: with its human qualities it becomes a mirror of ourselves. For centuries, stories have used animals to embody our feelings, desires, and fears. In that tradition we can also place the concert by L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, and Malena Ernman. Terra Mater is a collection of songs about faithful and sorrowful nightingales, chivalrous frogs, and shy mice. Playful and humorous, yes, but they also reflect our own actions and emotions.
If Thinker on a Rock has never caught your eye before, today is the perfect day to stop by the Neude and take a look. And why not combine it with a visit to the Concert Camper, over which the hare keeps watch today?
