Each masterpiece is a fascinating art-history novella and, at the same time, an invitation to the following tale, the next chapter in this never-ending cycle of astonishing stories ‘Rembrandt, The Return of the Prodigal Son’, of which the museum has so many. This whole work is dominated by the idea of the victory of love, goodness and charity. The event is treated as the highest act of human wisdom and spiritual nobility, and it takes place in absolute silence and stillness. The drama and depth of feeling are expressed in the figures of both father and son, with all the emotional precision with which Rembrandt was endowed. This parable in Rembrandt’s treatment is addressed to the heart of everyone.
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Riksa Afiaty
Power & Other Things
The project takes its name from the demand for the transfer of power and other things to the newly independent Indonesia in 1945. It travels through time, from European colonial occupation through the development of the republican state to the trans-national contemporary cultures of today. It looks at the various international exchanges that happened in the territories of contemporary Indonesia, through the images and ideas of artists. These exchanges were of different kinds: trade, culture, religion, ideology and war. They produced a variety of results: violence, oppression, racism, creativity, spiritual awakening, and other things. The ideologies and challenges of modernity are common ways in which Indonesia has been depicted by others and has defined itself over the period. As this modern period recedes into history, the project will seek ways to remember how it has influenced contemporary understanding and ask the current generation of artists to look back in order to rewrite the past and potentially create the conditions for a different future. The catalogue and the exhibition will follow a broad chronological narrative, allowing readers and visitors to learn more about how this huge archipelago has changed over the past two centuries and to observe how it has responded and adapted to influences originating from both inside and outside the islands. The influence of the imperial Dutch and Japanese occupations naturally form a significant element in the narrative of the exhibition as does the constant struggle for different forms of independence or equal treatment by the Javanese and other Indonesian cultures. The importance of Chinese and Arab influence on Indonesia's cultural history will also feature as the exhibition tries to look for alternative ways, alongside the post-colonial, for understanding the present. The presentations will include work made during the residencies as well as new commissions.kunst

Baule Monkeys
Straying from the traditional art canon of the delicate Baule masks and figures, 'Baule monkeys' explores the darker side of this art form, in all its aspects. This makes it to deal exclusively with the eponymous sculptures. These awe-inspiring bowl-bearing figures were physical manifestations of invisible powers, both malign and benign, and served their communities through the mediation of diviners. Using a group of remarkable figures from the Africarium collection as illustration, 'Baule monkeys' focuses on the creation, usage and form of these bowl bearers and sheds light on the cultural and ritual context in which they operated. Through extensive research, it combines new and fascinating discoveries with all previous relations on the subject. This research is accompanied by many splendid images. Not only does it include an original map and never before published field photos, it also contains 15 objects from the Africarium collection and 40 monkey figures from other public and private collections represented in full-page illustrations, and in smaller formats. This gives the reader a chance to see the works in great detail and from different angles.kunst

Onno Blom
Young Rembrandt
Rembrandt's life has always been an enigma. How did a miller's son from a provincial Dutch town become the greatest artist in the world? With his formative years shrouded in mystery, the only remaining evidence of Rembrandt's life as a young man is his work. Deeply rooted in the turbulent changes that his hometown was undergoing, Rembrandt's early paintings tell a fascinating story of artistic evolution against the backdrop of the widening horizons of Leiden's cultural and commercial life during the Dutch Golden Age. Leiden's fortune facilitated Rembrandt's. But who was that young man inventing himself as the city around him grew and prospered? How did Rembrandt become Rembrandt? To find out, Onno Blom immersed himself in the world, the country, the city and the house in which Rembrandt was born in 1606 and where he spent the first twenty-five years of his life. The result is a fascinating portrait of the artist as a young man, rich in local and biographical detail, and restless in its efforts to seek out the roots of his genius.kunst
