Description
Description
Bi-lingual catalogue English-Dutch
Indonesia’s flora – with more than 45,000 plant varieties – is one of the most abundant in the world. Photographer Dennis A-Tjak has been making a name for himself as portraitist of old flower varieties from countries that the VOC
traded with in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. What fascinates him in these varieties is that some of them have been there for centuries and have been passed on to us from generation to generation. A-Tjak has clearly developed his own style for photographing old flower varieties. His portraits stand out because of their technical perfection. The hyperrealist photographs exude perfection, drama and elegance. They are surprising, sometimes disconcertingly abstract, but every single one of them is delightful to look at.
In a historical introduction to A-Tjak’s photographs, Bea Brommer describes how the Dutchmen dove into the study of the Indonesian flora and sometimes devoted their whole lives to botanical research. But also how many of those
native plants and flowers were shipped to the Netherlands where they were cultivated in the heated greenhouses of the botanical gardens and estates of wealthy individuals and thus gradually took root in our national flower culture.
Exhibition
October 20 2018 – January 20 2019 in the Westfries Museum, Hoorn
The Westfries Museum tells the story of the most enervating period in the history of the Netherlands, Hoorn and Westfriesland: the Golden Age. With special attention to the VOC.
