Exhibiting Surinamese Histories of Art: Curatorial Approaches Towards Diversity

Abstract

In December 2020 the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam opened the exhibition Surinaamse School: Schilderkunst van Paramaribo tot Amsterdam (Surinamese School: Painting from Paramaribo to Amsterdam, 2020–2021). The exhibition displayed over a hundred paintings by thirty-six artists who were born or had worked in Suriname from 1910 to the mid-1980s. In particular, attention was paid to artists who were important for art education and the professionalization of artistic practice in the country. This is an unconventional topic for the Dutch museum, because it has not often displayed the work of Surinamese artists, let alone in the context of a Surinamese national history of art. In general, when delving into the exhibition histories of Dutch art museums, it stands out that little interest is shown in histories of art outside the west