Postcard from Amsterdam, Netherlands: Bold art opens window to other cultures

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Above: “Revolution,” Otto Djaya (1916-2002), oil and ink on canvas, 1947

The fighters depicted in Otto Djaya’s painting ‘Revolution’ (1947) are all dressed and equipped for revolutionary action. The figures’ various styles of dress represent the great variety of local costumes worn in the different regions of the archipelago. Their makeshift equipment references the ragtag make-up of the Indonesian revolutionary army, which Otto depicted with a sense of humor…. Otto clearly aimed to break with the Dutch concept of ‘volkstypen,’ meaning ‘ethnic types:’ A koelie is always an indigenous Javanese or Chinese person, whereas an ambtenaar (official), a priester, and certainly a regent is always of Dutch descent.”

“Fighting Colonial Claims to Power,” Kerstin Winking, Stedelijk Museum website

Before the Japanese occupation during World War II, the archipelago now known as Indonesia had been a profitable colonial outpost for the Dutch for almost 350 years. Following the Allied defeat of Japan, revolutionary forces declared independence, taking advantage of the Netherlands’ weakened state after years of war and German occupation. The Netherlands balked at recognition, so a bloody four-year war ensued.

Yet, in 1947, in the midst of this revolt, the curator of the Stedelijk Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and Design boldly mounted an exhibition focused on the work of two brothers, Agus and Otto Djaya, newly arrived in Amsterdam from their native land, the Dutch East Indies. Members of the revolutionary army, the pair harnessed the power of art as a weapon to persuade the Dutch to recognize Indonesian independence. Some of their works brazenly represented Dutch colonialism as a monster.

This, in a museum originally funded by private donors who had made their fortunes through colonial exploitation. I’ve tried, but it’s impossible for me to imagine the public outcry and political fallout caused by this exhibition. Think of Queen Wilhelmina (1880-1962), only just returned to The Hague following her wartime exile in England. Exhausted after ruling through two world wars and facing intense criticism for the potential loss of the oil-rich Dutch East Indies, the ailing Queen Wilhelmina abdicated in favor of her daughter Juliana (1909-2004) in 1948.

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Postcard from Istanbul, Turkey: ‘Mea culpa,’ admits a wine-swilling trespasser

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Above: Racks of wine inside Beyoglu Saraphanesi

A full wine rack in a restaurant in Istanbul became a welcome site for determining where we would eat. If you are a teetotaler, dining options are more plentiful with much lower price points.

Of course, this makes sense. Ninety-nine percent of the population in Turkey is Muslim, a religion that bans the consumption of alcohol. Intoxicants are viewed by many as “abominations of Satan’s handiwork.”

This doesn’t mean you personally are forbidden from partaking; it means that those of us with a certain type of thirst must work to locate restaurants willing to pay the high license fees to offer beer, wine and cocktails. With its Muslim majority, Turkey’s steep sin tax receives high approval ratings. Why not tax those foreign visitors clogging your streets and your young people who already are over-influenced by western culture?

…travel, is flight and pursuit in equal measure. It is both the desire to leave home and the passion to find something new, to pick up stakes and discover who you are in a different landscape and culture….

You are both somebody and nobody, often merely a spectator. I always felt in my bones that wherever I went, I was an alien. That I could not presume or expect much hospitality… that wherever I was, I had no business there and had to justify my intrusion by writing about what I heard. Most travel… can be filed under the heading ‘Trespassing.'”

“The Hard Reality American Expats Quickly Learn,” Paul Theroux, New York Times, January 5, 2025

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Postcard from Palermo, Sicily: Modern art in Sant’Anna haunt

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Above: Richard Avedon’s 1981 photograph, “Natassja Kinski and the Serpent,” is superimposed over one of a cage protecting a cluster of bones in the crypt below Sant’Anna la Misericordia, home to Palermo’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna.

Granted this Richard Avedon photo of “Natassja Kinski” in the nude was not displayed in such close proximity to bones in the crypt of the church of Sant’Anna alla Misericordia, but, after all, nothing is more naked than bones. And churches in Italy have always been home to art, religious art that in the time of its creation was considered contemporary.

When citizens in Palermo determined they needed to have a Modern Art Museum in 1906, they boldly ventured forth to Venice in 1907 to acquire avant-garde works to supplement their Sicilian collection. Launched in 1895, the Venice Biennale quickly garnered international prestige. Ongoing buying trips through the years enabled the museum to trace the evolution of symbolism and modernism in art.

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