An ode to old age in The Rembrandt House Museum
The exhibitions Life/Time and Rembrandt Open Studio show old age in its many layers. From the viewpoint of Rembrandt and his followers, but also as seen by two contemporary artists making art live in the museum.
In times of corona, in which people have to keep distance from the elderly, we have to rely more on contact through our gaze. From 25 September to 29 November, The Rembrandt House Museum delivers an ode to the many-layered richness of old age, in two exhibitions. In Life/Time, Rembrandt’s etchings of old people are shown next to work by his pupil Abraham van Dijck and his great fan Aat Veldhoen. In the second exhibition room two recently graduated artists will install studios and make new work: Iriée Zamblé and Timothy Voges. With their own, individual perspective, they will look at the art of Rembrandt’s time and at the world around us. What does “old age” mean, actually?
Life/Time: Rembrandt, Abraham van Dijck and Aat Veldhoen
Rembrandt was a keen and sympathetic observer – his renderings of old people are intimate, vulnerable, and at the same time powerful. They include old people dozing off in a chair. But we also see wise old men in their study chambers, or a spry old pancake baker. Life/Time shows works of art from the museum’s collection, such as etchings by Rembrandt, paintings by his pupil Abraham van Dijck and prints by the modern artist and Rembrandt fan Aat Veldhoen.
The high point of this collection exhibition is the latest acquisition of The Rembrandt House Museum: a small painting by Rembrandt pupil Abraham van Dijck. The museum purchased it last year at an auction. It is a depiction of an old man on the edge of falling asleep. Old people often served in seventeenth-century Dutch art as symbol for the transience of life. But this man is a painter, he holds a palette and brushes in his hand. The message here could be: life will end, but the painting will remain. Or otherwise: art triumphs over death.
Rembrandt Open Studio: Iriée Zamblé and Timothy Voges
Rembrandt’s house was a creative hub. Rembrandt did not namely work here alone: many pupils also made art here, sometimes even four or five at a time. Now, nearly 400 years later, we are bringing this back. A new generation of young artists will have the opportunity to name new work, with a contemporary viewpoint on the art of Rembrandt’s time and the world of today. This fall Iriée Zamblé and Timothy Voges will set up their studios in the gallery. They will reflect on the themes of the exhibition Life/Time: old age, transience, strength and vulnerability. Zamblé and Voges will at the same time be staying in the exhibition gallery and alternatively working and/or showing existing work – sometimes alone, sometimes together.
Iriée Zamblé (Amsterdam, 1995) makes painted tronies and portraits of black people. Her work is about representation, identity and presence. Of essence is that black people enjoy the space to be themselves and be busy with the stuff of everyday life. She draws inspiration from the people she encounters, often on the street.
The paintings of Timothy Voges (Willemstad, 1993) are cut out of found images from the media or older sources, where the context is missing. This leaves much open to interpretation. Potentially very random scenes sometimes appear eerie, vulnerable, voyeuristic or simply nostalgic. This depends on the viewer themselves.
