Yesterday, at the end of the portrait gallery of the ‘High Society’ exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, I missed Beyoncé. And here’s why.
My friend Tess and I visited the Rijksmuseum specifically to see the exhibition ‘High Society’, featuring the full-length portraits of the rich and the famous. The premise of the exhibition is that all the character portrayed – from the middle ages through to the 1920s – are all attending the same party, a high society party.
Let’s start with the good stuff: the premise is fun, the portraits are amazing to experience IRL and the campaign promoting the exhibition – a web series together with the Dutch comedy group Koefnoen and Jort Kelder introducing the different characters – is a stroke of genius. Standing eye to eye with these masterpieces, and seeing their characters brought to life in the web series, reminds us that these were actual people with actual lives. These were the Will&Kates, the Kardashians or Beyoncés of their day, the rich and famous showing themselves at their best.
Now let’s get on with some of the points upon which could be improved. The temporary exhibition space in the Rijksmuseum is roughly split over two areas. For ‘High Society’ you start off with life-sized painted portraits, running from the middle-ages to the Belle-époque. These are big, colourful engaging pictures. The second half, however, is made up of rooms full of prints. Though some were quite hilarious in showing drunken or erotic high society parties from back-in-the-day (check out Cornelis Troost’s paintings of a party’s progress), the switch to small colourless prints was tough. The admittedly shocking yet hilarious room filled with erotic prints felt disconnected from the large paintings from the first half. It feels like maybe the two should have been flipped so visitors end with the visually more exciting portraits.
Quick side-step, to discuss another time the Rijksmuseum could have done with switching the end and beginning around. My friend Tess had that idea for the Rijksmuseum’s previous exhibition about South Africa. So not the first time this idea comes up. I didn’t’ write about that exhibition after seeing it, simply because it was too overwhelming in its disappointments. Having lived in South Africa during my high school years and having a soft spot for the country, I can definitely say I was disappointed by the work produced by such a prestigious institution. I had MANY questions: where was the voice or perspective of (any?!) South Africans? Why all the empty landscape paintings, all by the same guy, filling up the biggest room? What does that add to the story? Why do ‘the Dutch’ switch to being ‘the Afrikaners’ at the same exact moment that the ugly concept of apartheid is introduced? Reversing the set-up, starting with how South-Africa is now and travelling back into history from there, as suggested by my friend Tess, would have upset the story, and could have upended the colonial gaze to make for a more dynamic view of the topic.
Anyway, back to the High Society exhibition. My point is that this dynamic approach by upending a topic by taking a different approach or changing up perspectives is something I find lacking in Rijksmuseum exhibitions. The portraits shown in this most recent exhibition straddled several centuries and showed both tradition and invention. Each generation reinvents the traditions of portraiture in a way relevant to their time. So…. where’s the one from our age? Why did they stop in the twenties? If they’d have added Beyonce’s most-liked Instagram photo of 2017 it would have driven home the continuation, or at least started a discussion.
Yes, it’s a scary thing for an established international institution like the Rijksmuseum to take risks – but come on, it’s worth it! In order for a cultural establishment to stay on top of its game, it’ll have to take some chances. To stay relevant a museum should have something to say, take part in society and engage.
There’s a reason I’m addressing this issue now. From what I heard, the very touchy topic of slavery is next up for the museum, scheduled to be on display in 2010. Here’s a tip to make sure that exhibition doesn’t suffer the same fate as the one about South Africa: hire people with different backgrounds. This can be either culturally or by discipline. You guys need someone who’ll disagree with you and start up the dialectic approach. Whoever it is, their alternative opinions will help you in the long run. So please, get some people of colour on your team to balance your views!
Brain & Guts 