Beachbag

Cool wall by Raymond Koop, painted with the help of Teus van Kooten, Thomas Ankum and Kees C. den Boef.

In 1982 Raymond Koop was commissioned by the municipality of Alblasserdam, to paint something on the side of this appartment building. Ad Cardon, then 'Chief of Social Affairs' in Alblasserdam, asked the artist if he could brighten up the boring, gloomy building. Without Cardon and his enormous drive, this 'beachbag' would never have existed.

For the design the artist was faced with a difficult choice: "Shall I paint a pair of beautiful women's legs on high heels, shall I paint overalls, or will it be a box in a large bag?" It turned out to be the last. “The other two ideas were too sensitive,” said Koop. “Painting beautiful women's legs on an apartment in Alblasserdam was not yet ethically acceptable in 1982 and the idea of painting overalls had to be dropped because there were many layoffs at the shipyards at that time and overalls took on a different meaning for many people.”

Koop practiced beforehand with a box and a cloth to see how the folds would run. At the edges of the wall a layer of cement was applied, that was painted white twice. It took the men more than two and a half months to complete the artwork. The name 'beachbag' came up among the inhabitants of the village. The artist himself had not yet thought of a name. “I called it 'The Flat in a Bag", he said.

A restoration of the artwork is carried out approximately every ten years. The artwork was last restored in 2023 by Ricardo van Zwol with Rewriters.

In the evening and night, the beachbag flat is illuminated by a spotlight.