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The Lovers II by Gerhard Juchum, a 1973 sculpture in concrete on the grounds of City Hall.[/caption]
As I was passing City Hall on Friday, on the Cambie Street side, I glanced eastwards over the grounds and spied these two naked guys in close embrace. My first thought naturally was that they must have been freezing their, ba... um, tuckuses off.
On closer inspection the duo turned out to be a sculpture. According to a plaque affixed to the base, it's called "The Lovers" by Gerhard Juchum. And the pair wasn't entirely naked; they were partially covered by dirt and moss.
"Gerhard Juchum" is not a name I've heard before. And honestly, I can recite facts verbatim off the Internet as well as anyone but I'd recommend people go to this Website devoted to the life and art of Mr. Juchum and read the story for themselves. The tale of his brief time in our city is poignant, funny, inspiring and tragic.
Gerhard Juchum was a Rumanian-born emigre who came to Vancouver, British Columbia, from West Germany in October, 1968.
He earned his living as a veterinarian with the Canadian government but devoted all of his spare time to his sculpture. He seems to have loved his adopted city almost as much as he loved his art.
This love was not entirely reciprocated; three times he tried to "donate" sculptures to the city and three times the Vancouver Parks Board rebuffed his gifts.
The problem was he donated his sculptures by sticking them on something somewhere in the city and hoping for the best.
In about 1969 he stuck his concrete and polyester sculpture The Spearfisher on a rock at a public beach in Stanley Park to apparently favourable reviews from the press and the public but not from the Parks Board who took it down and stored it in their works yard. The sculpture was happily snapped up in 1971 by the City Council of Port Hardy on Vancouver Island.
In 1972 he surreptitiously mounted his Lovers I sculpture at English Bay Beach and again the Parks Board demurred to accept it. The District of Port Alice however was "jubilant" to get it in June of 1972.
Undaunted, Gerhard had another go in 1973, placing another sculpture, The Lovers II, in a public place.By this time the Parks Board knew where he lived and two days later they left the sculpture on his doorstep with a note advising him they would sue the next time he left a statue in one of their parks.
You can imagine how the press had a field day with this wonderful guy.
Later in 1973 a Vancouver City Hall Art Committee approved the statue for placement on west lawn of Vancouver's City Hall.
His sculpture Fisher Hauling in the Net can be seen at the VanDusen Botanical Garden.
Gerhard Juchum was only 44 when he died in 1977 in a fiery car wreck caused by a chain-reaction collision on Highway 99.
In his nine short years in Vancouver he not only created at least 100 sculptures, he was a persistent and passionate public voice in favour of public art. In fact, he was endearingly militant about it.
I can perhaps thank Gerhard Juchum in part for encouraging Vancouver to take a more European approach to enlivening its public spaces with art.
And if he could surreptitiously plant sculptures here and there, maybe someone could quietly take a bucket of soapy water and a brush down to the west lawn of City Hall and give his two lovers a bit of a scrub. Click the images to enlarge them.
The Lovers II by Gerhard Juchum, a 1973 sculpture in concrete on the grounds of City Hall.[/caption]As I was passing City Hall on Friday, on the Cambie Street side, I glanced eastwards over the grounds and spied these two naked guys in close embrace. My first thought naturally was that they must have been freezing their, ba... um, tuckuses off.
On closer inspection the duo turned out to be a sculpture. According to a plaque affixed to the base, it's called "The Lovers" by Gerhard Juchum. And the pair wasn't entirely naked; they were partially covered by dirt and moss.From Rumania with love
"Gerhard Juchum" is not a name I've heard before. And honestly, I can recite facts verbatim off the Internet as well as anyone but I'd recommend people go to this Website devoted to the life and art of Mr. Juchum and read the story for themselves. The tale of his brief time in our city is poignant, funny, inspiring and tragic.
Gerhard Juchum was a Rumanian-born emigre who came to Vancouver, British Columbia, from West Germany in October, 1968.
He earned his living as a veterinarian with the Canadian government but devoted all of his spare time to his sculpture. He seems to have loved his adopted city almost as much as he loved his art.
This love was not entirely reciprocated; three times he tried to "donate" sculptures to the city and three times the Vancouver Parks Board rebuffed his gifts.
The problem was he donated his sculptures by sticking them on something somewhere in the city and hoping for the best.
In about 1969 he stuck his concrete and polyester sculpture The Spearfisher on a rock at a public beach in Stanley Park to apparently favourable reviews from the press and the public but not from the Parks Board who took it down and stored it in their works yard. The sculpture was happily snapped up in 1971 by the City Council of Port Hardy on Vancouver Island.
In 1972 he surreptitiously mounted his Lovers I sculpture at English Bay Beach and again the Parks Board demurred to accept it. The District of Port Alice however was "jubilant" to get it in June of 1972.
Undaunted, Gerhard had another go in 1973, placing another sculpture, The Lovers II, in a public place.By this time the Parks Board knew where he lived and two days later they left the sculpture on his doorstep with a note advising him they would sue the next time he left a statue in one of their parks.
You can imagine how the press had a field day with this wonderful guy.
Later in 1973 a Vancouver City Hall Art Committee approved the statue for placement on west lawn of Vancouver's City Hall.
His sculpture Fisher Hauling in the Net can be seen at the VanDusen Botanical Garden.
A life cut short and a legacy that lives on
Gerhard Juchum was only 44 when he died in 1977 in a fiery car wreck caused by a chain-reaction collision on Highway 99.
In his nine short years in Vancouver he not only created at least 100 sculptures, he was a persistent and passionate public voice in favour of public art. In fact, he was endearingly militant about it.
I can perhaps thank Gerhard Juchum in part for encouraging Vancouver to take a more European approach to enlivening its public spaces with art.
And if he could surreptitiously plant sculptures here and there, maybe someone could quietly take a bucket of soapy water and a brush down to the west lawn of City Hall and give his two lovers a bit of a scrub. Click the images to enlarge them.
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