AT COBRA MUSEUM IN 2025: 50 YEARS OF AUTONOMOUS SURINAMESE ART

September 2025 – March 2026

On November 25, 1975, it will be fifty years since Suriname gained independence. This exhibition showcases several developments in the field of painting and sculpture in Suriname and the Surinamese diaspora in the Netherlands.

The exhibition takes visitors on a journey filled with inspiring art from 1975 to the present, exploring themes such as cultural identity, personal history, spirituality, and experimentation. Hugging the Atlantic, 50 Years of Autonomous Surinamese Art includes a selection of approximately 100 artworks that reflect the influence of the emergence and development of the young republic.

Current Issues

The exhibition features not only post-war artists but also young creators who have developed their practice in Suriname and the Netherlands after independence, displaying their recent works. The museum organizes a program of activities around these themes. A podcast series delves deeper into the topics, featuring important figures in the art world.

Guest Curator

Bart Krieger, the guest curator of this exhibition, was part of the curatorial team that organized the Surinamese School exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 2020, highlighting the period from approximately 1910 to 1980. Additionally, he wrote a monthly art column in the Surinamese opinion magazine Parbode from 2010 onwards, which he compiled into the book “50 Surinamese Art Treasures” in 2015.

World Art

The Cobra Museum pays attention to world art in its programming. It emphasizes art from a non-Western perspective, created and exhibited in that context. In this way, the museum provides a contemporary interpretation of the interest that Cobra artists had in non-Western art in the 1950s and the influence of art from around the world. Furthermore, the Cobra movement greatly influenced artists such as Erwin de Vries, Soeki Irodikromo, and Guillaume Lo A Njoe, who played a significant role in the early days of the young republic.