Artwork title : Ode to Berlage

This paiting (oil on canvas, 120 x 80 cm) is the central part of a pentaptych and depicts the inside of the Beurs (exchange building) in Amsterdam  The building was designed by the Dutch architect H.P. Berlage. The building currently serves as a center for exhibitions, conferences, and other gatherings. The Beurs is among the "Top 100 of the National Heritage Agency" from 1990. In 1999, the Union Internationale des Architectes included the Beurs on a list of the 1,000 most important buildings of the twentieth century.

In designing the Beurs, Berlage adhered to the principle that form and ornament are closely related to the structure, unity in multiplicity. This was also a political statement. The enormous brick walls found in the Beurs, which are also depicted in the painting, represent, in Berlage's view, a democratic society: "insignificant as an individual, a power as a mass." This theme is also reflected in the figures in the painting in the central hall and the alcoves. Although the individual demonstrators seem insignificant in this environment, as a mass they still form a force that can move the politicians in the alcoves to put an end to the existing injustice.