Curaçao and Jamaica took steps toward strengthening artistic ties through cultural exchange. Felix de Rooy, a renowned Curaçaoan artist, visited Jamaica under the auspices of Curaçao’s Ministry of Culture and Education, to showcase the art of his homeland and engage with local institutions. His exhibition at the Bolivar Gallery provided Jamaicans with a glimpse into Curaçaoan artistry. 

Published Saturday, February 22, 1975

Curacao artist displays works at the Bolivar

An exhibition of paintings by Felix de Rooy of Curaçao was declared open by Noel Vaz, tutor in Drama at The University of the West Indies (UWI), at the Bolivar Gallery on Thursday afternoon.

Vaz praised the artist for his works and referred to him as “a painter whose mystique seemed to be based in the grotesque, romantic tradition, visionary, and awful in the sense that Blake painted, portraying all the bloodiness and violence and horror of the 20th century — yet in tune with the tenderness and ultimate poise found in some Oriental art.”

The artist, said Vaz, had the ability to depict what seems to be monumental and mysterious about the vital sources of life itself. De Rooy, he said, was comparable to Bruegel the Younger and Hieronymus Bosch, who worked in the Surrealistic style, for convenience, some 50 years ago.

Referring to European influence on the artist and art, Vaz remarked that it appeared that the world was becoming smaller, leaving little room for exclusivity in the arts. “While we strive naturally to reflect the ingenuous in all forms of art, there is far too much careless and destructive talk which keeps continually knocking European art as being foreign, irrelevant, and of a standard not our own,” he said.

He went on to say that, while this was understandable to an extent, it was not understandable or reasonable to find these ideas promulgated among those who professed to be intelligent. While many were talking about doing their own thing, Vaz said the best artists should realise that they must have a thorough knowledge of their art to be able to make a contribution at all.

Vaz concluded by saying that it was to nobody’s advantage to keep downgrading art forms that the world has recognised as first-rate on the grounds that they are not theirs. It was only when people allow themselves to understand and appreciate such art forms that they could hope to make a lasting contribution to their own development, he commented.

De Rooy studied at 'Psychopolis', the free academy at The Hague, Holland, from 1970 to 1974. He has had one-man shows in Dutch Caribbean territories and the Netherlands. He arrived here on Monday for a visit under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Education in Curaçao, to give a general idea of what art is like in Curaçao and to contact art schools and institutions in the hope that a cultural exchange might be made between the two countries.

The exhibition at the Bolivar will close on March 8.

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