Museum Beelden aan Zee is staging a retrospective exhibition with works by the Suriname artist Erwin de Vries (Paramaribo, 1929 - 2018) in the context of fifty years independence of Suriname – an event which will be celebrated in the Netherlands next autumn with a variety of activities.

At the age of eighteen Erwin de Vries moved to the Netherlands, where he trained at the art academy in The Hague and at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. He quickly went on to make his name as a sculptor and painter. De Vries is the artist of the National Monument to the History of Slavery in the Oosterpark in Amsterdam, where the keti koti (broken chains) commemoration takes place annually on July 1 in memory of the abolition of slavery in Suriname and in the Dutch Caribbean.

After his death, he left behind an extensive and interesting oeuvre, ranging from expressionist designs, sculptures and striking portraits to abstract-expressionist, figurative paintings and drawings. The bright colours in his paintings show his Caribbean background and his source of inspiration. De Vries’s art is evidence of an enormous zest for living: the earthly life and the people, with the emphasis on the erotic and on woman, took centre stage in his work.

The exhibition focuses on his sculpture, which was sourced from various institutional and private collections. The majority of this work has never been seen by the public until now.

Curators: Joost Bergman and Hanneke Oosterhof.