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The National Gallery in Zimbabwe is hosting Dutch artist Rembrandt’s 350 exhibition in Harare before it moves to Bulawayo.
For the better part of three weeks, the exhibition which features 35 Zimbabwean artists and a massive copy of Rembrandt’s Nightwatch etching has been available for viewing in Harare and from the 25th of November 2019 will grace Bulawayo, for the only celebration in Africa.
We had a chat with the National Gallery of Zimbabwe executive director Doreen Sibanda about this massive occasion:
On being the only African country part of the Rembrandt @ 350 celebrations:
It kinda underscores that we are part of the global community and that we have a community of artists here that can engage. We have been amazed by how the artists took to the subject matter. We weren’t sure, because you know, Rembrandt is like old master, really old master and it doesn’t really feed into lifestyle and the purview of the young artist in Zim. But, and a little bit to our credit, we trained a lot of these artists and they are fully aware of what has gone on before and where they stand in relation to everything and I think that comes out in their work. The work that they have done takes a departure from not only the images of Rembrandt but the purpose that he pursued in his work, the subject matters, the techniques and they have made it their own to a large extent. Some of the issues, things like the Nightwatch, The [Anatomy] Lesson [of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp], and various portraits of sort of medieval fictional characters and real characters. So I think that the people who normally deal with like portrait really found something to hold onto and as usual, it is not literally. A lot of it is tongue-in-cheek. A lot of it is the substitution of white images for black images and it just makes it more fun. And yet it is technically extremely competent. A lot of the work is extremely competent in terms of drawing, painting, photography even, which is completely a new medium in regards to Rembrandt. They’ve been able to insert so many images which mimic the purpose of some of the portraiture, sort of the revelation of wealth, the standing in Zimbabwe. They have been able to substitute Zimbabweans into those images which makes it more interesting with very convincing techniques. We are really happy. We think it has been a great starting point and instigator for new ideas, for new ways of looking at things, for new techniques and a learning experience.
On the delivery of balance between very experienced and those not so so experienced
That is largely up to the jury committee because they went through these 140-odd works and picked out 35. It was a hard, hard task because so many of the works were really good, you know technically very proficient, artistically very engaging and interesting take on some of the subject matters. So it wasn’t easy for them, but I think we’re open because he’s got a very established technique, although he was a radical in his days, so you don’t want a total copy that’s not so interesting. You want somebody to use that as a springboard to say something else but maybe using his technique or maybe his imagery and so on and so forth. So altogether, it doesn’t mean you have to be an extremely accomplished, or professional or long exhibiting artist to get into the show. It is whether you’ve got an interesting idea and an interesting take on the subject matter. So that is why you find it is not just the hardcore professionals or the expected artists, which we would never do. We’re open
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