Erwin de Vries and me
Written by Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi
Once upon a time, many years ago, I met Erwin de Vries for the first time in my life. I think I was already twenty, but I looked like a girl of fourteen being very slender, not to say thin, and tiny. At that time, Erwin was still Holland based, but when he was in Suriname, he used to live and have his studio in a colonial house at the Rietbergplein on the corner of the Wilhelminastraat and the Cornelis Jongbawstraat. The house was built in a typical ‘Combé – style’ with a balcony facing the Rietbergplein and you could see all the traffic of four streets merging at one point. The four streets were the Kleine Waterstraat, Sommelsdijckse straat, Wilhelminastraat and Cornelis Jongbawstraat.
I was there with some other people, and I am almost sure that Erwin did not even notice me. He was obsessed with a beautiful, also slender, but certainly not thin, young girl. She was dark brown, had a short Afro haircut, and an iconic face and head. She just could have walked out of a Benin bronze. Years later I thought I recognized her in a painting, but that painting was dated 1987.
50th Anniversary 1998 – 1948, Suriname – The Netherlands.
Editor Lilian de Vries – Abegg.
It must have been 1985 or 1986 when Chris Healy dragged Erwin de Vries along to our house at Leonsberg. We had it built only a year or two before. Erwin was going to build a house on the bank of the Suriname river. Chris wanted Erwin to see our house, because we built a big living space with raw timber beams, the ones they used for electricity poles in those days. It was in the evening and our lighting was still very poor. Erwin had a problem with this. I remember him murmuring that he had architect Nooitmeer making a design for him. Our houses are totally different from each other, but they both have a big and open living space with doors/windows and wood as domineering factors.
In 1999, we as FVAS (Federation of Visual Artists in Suriname) organized a seminar with a discussion on ‘The artist and the society’. There were four speakers. Hillary de Bruin spoke about ‘Policy on Culture and Art, and the Artist’; Syrano Zalman about ‘Art and Tourism’; Robert Ameerali about ‘Art and Commerce’; I, Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi spoke about ‘The Federation: A need to unite’.
In my speech I stated that if you wanted to take part in the international Artworld, even if you still wanted to do your own thing, you had to be able to speak their language. Because basically, people who speak their ‘language’ will exhibit in the Stedelijk Museum and people who do not speak their ‘language’ will be in the Museum of Ethnology.
Elviera Rijsdijk wrote in our daily newspaper ‘De Ware Tijd’ that the secretary of FVAS had said: “Je moet de mensen naar de mond praten om in het Stedelijk Museum te kunnen exposeren.” Translated into English: “You have to butter up the people to be able to exhibit in the Stedelijk Museum.” Somebody called Erwin immediately and told him: “they are talking about you”. Erwin was furious. It took me a lot of persuasive power to explain to Erwin that Elviera had twisted my words.
Years passed by before Erwin became interested in me as a model. Carla Tuinfort organized an exhibition in a yard of a restaurant called ‘De Hofstede’. She asked me to participate. When we were building the exhibition, Erwin suddenly came to me and said: “Wow! What beautiful calves you have! When can I paint you?” I must say, I danced ballet when I was a teenager, and my calves were not that slender. Furthermore, I was older now, and I had gained weight.
To me, Erwin de Vries has been a most outstanding artist, but I have never been in love with his work, except for the portrait of Micheal Slory and some bronze busts he made. My husband Jan van Charante on the other hand, loved his work. However, in both our eyes, Erwin was a very important artist, an icon for Suriname.
From 1997 – 2000, I organized small exhibitions in the lobby of Hotel Zeelandia Suites. These mini – exhibitions were focused on artists living and working in Suriname. I wrote informative articles on the artists and their work. These articles were first published in a magazine, called Pit. After being well received by the public, Elviera Rijsdijk asked me to also make the articles available for publication in ‘De Ware Tijd’. When I had Erwin de Vries on display in the lobby of Zeelandia Suites, I realized once again the greatness in his work. It really was most outstanding.
How Erwin thought of me as an artist, I can only guess. About twenty-five years ago he asked my husband: “How is your wife doing. She could draw so lovely.” I think he saw some quality in my work, but he did not really like it. It was not raw enough; it was too pretty and sweet. However, about ten years ago, when I once went to his studio at the Anton Dragtenweg, he was working on a bust and he asked me for my opinion. I gave him my comments and he changed it to my suggestion. Then he told me: “you were right, it is better like this.”
Going through my memories: Erwin did make me a very poetic and creative compliment. In 2012, I was honored to be the featured Visual Artist at the conference of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars , and I had a solo exhibition within the program. Standing before the painting ‘Water dragon’ (on the cover page of the catalogue), Erwin said: “Who bought this painting? It is a very clever person. You can practically hear the roar of the water thundering down.”
But his greatest honor to me came when he had a solo exhibition in 2014, celebrating his 85th birthday. He asked me to do the opening of the exhibition. Together with my fellow artists active in the FVAS (Federation of Visual Artists in Suriname) at that time, we really honored him at this opening.
Today, we are together at the ‘VAT plaza’. A bronze bust of Erwin de Vries, a self-portrait, is placed next to one of the pillars with my design on it. This conjures up memories of the past. Here Erwin de Vries had his own table, so even if it was too crowded and all tables were occupied, he always had his spot. He painted this, his own table, at one of the FVAS – Surifesta events at Sidewalk café ‘t VAT, in 2005. At another FVAS – Surifesta happening in 2014, we as a group of local artists painted (for the second time) a Giant Painting for the Departure Hall of the Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport. There were 5 groups of artists, and each group painted a fifth of the Giant Painting. Erwin de Vries, Kurt Nahar, George Struikelblok, Reinier Asmoredjo, Dhiradj Ramsamoedj and I, were in one group. In this painting Erwin and I are also next to each other, with Kurt Nahar halfway in between, making a wonderful connection between our different styles.
I seldom joined Erwin at his table at ‘t VAT, but one day I was passing by, and he sat alone, so I decided to have a chat with him. He told me some spicy stories, which I will not tell today.
