2019 marks the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt's death (1606-1669). The
Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett, which possesses one of the most important
collections of Rembrandt's drawings and prints in the world, will take
the occasion to celebrate Rembrandt as artist, printmaker and
draughtsman. The exhibition and catalog cast a fresh light on this
innovative 'artists' artist', who continues to inspire and engage
artists and audiences three and a half centuries after his death. The
Dresden collection's singular group of Rembrandt works - about 20
drawings attributed to the master today and the nearly complete oeuvre
of etchings- will provide the basis for this remarkable publication. It
will have a particular focus on Rembrandt's narrative compositions,
printed self-portraits, studies of his wife Saskia, and will include
works from all periods of his oeuvre plus prints and drawings by artists
from his workshop and followers. The list of artists who understood
Rembrandt as a dynamic authority and source of inspiration is long,
reaching from his immediate followers to masters of the 18th century,
from Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione to Jonathan Richardson to the
kindred spirit Francisco de Goya, into the 20th century and up to the
present day. Examples include Edouard Manet, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec,
Lovis Corinth, Käthe Kollwitz, Max Beckmann, Pablo Picasso, as well as
Marlene Dumas and William Kentridge and artists from the GDR such as
A.R. Penck. By including works by these artists, the exhibition and
catalog foreground Rembrandt as one of the most important 'artists'
artist' of all time. Select juxtapositions will help the reader better
understand the fireworks of creativity that Rembrandt not only lit in
his own time but those he continues to ignite today. Rembrandt remains
eternally captivating, not only because of his radical choices and
unconventional interpretations of Christian and profane pictorial
subjects, but also because of his joy in experimentation, especially in
the use of printing and drawing techniques, and his reflective, humorous
intellect, complemented by his sensually direct approach to the world.
With a light hand, he broke open the conventions of his era. The
pictorial worlds that he created with his free, decisive mark convey his
near inexhaustible interest in nature as creation, whether it be the
human exterior or interior, and offer a wealth of connecting points and
constellations for other artists as well as for the viewer.
