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Landscape and memory have been described as the essential raw materials of the visual arts: one provides the subject and the other a filter through which to interpret a place and time. But the relationship between a particular geographical setting and local artistic expression is rarely predictable. Consider the artists of Suriname, who have a lush seaside setting for inspiration. A new exhibit at the Cultural Center Art Gallery at the IDB's Washington, D.C., headquarters shatters any clichéd notions viewers might still hold about "tropical" art. The paintings, sculptures and ceramics of "In Search of Memory: 17 Contemporary Artists from Suriname," reveal their country of origin obliquely, through an aesthetic prism with numerous ethnic, stylistic and ideological faces. These include the contrasting sensibilities of the African, Dutch, Indian, Indonesian, Jewish, Portuguese and indigenous groups that make up Surinamese society. The fact that many of the country's leading artists completed at least part of their education in Europe is apparent in the prevalence of 20th-century artistic currents such as abstract and figurative expressionism. The sensual nudes of Erwin de Vries, perhaps Suriname's best-known contemporary artist, are appreciated as easily by collectors in Paris as by those in Paramaribo. And even when aspects of the Surinamese landscape are recognizable, as in Anand Binda's vibrant paintings, they are interpreted in a decidedly cosmopolitan way. "In Search of Memory," the first exhibit of Surinamese art to be held at the IDB, will be on view until September 18th. |
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