Museumercanary: a title fitting for Borys Malkin (1917-2009), owing to the dualistic nature of his occupation: on one side he is remembered as an anthropologist, who for 40 years (1960s-90s)...Show moreMuseumercanary: a title fitting for Borys Malkin (1917-2009), owing to the dualistic nature of his occupation: on one side he is remembered as an anthropologist, who for 40 years (1960s-90s) conducted fieldwork amongst over 46 Indigenous groups in South America. On the other side, however, he was a full-time private collector, dealer, and smuggler of Indigenous material culture, who sold ethnographic (and some archaeological) collections to more than 40 museums in Europe and North America. In this thesis, I investigate Malkin’s work process in both of his occupations, in order to establish his true motivations and intentions for creating and selling Indigenous South American collections. I do so through a combination of literature review and archival research, involving the analysis of Malkin’s private correspondences with 8 of his museum clients. His letters not only contain his stories from collecting in the field, full of his personal views, opinions and commentary on Indigenous life and culture and South American politics, but also his collection documentation and invoices. The two museums, which corresponded with Malkin the most, were the Museum of Cultures in Basel (Switzerland) and the National Museum of the American Indian in New York (USA). While Malkin’s interest in Indigenous material culture was mostly financial, his methods of collecting and documenting material culture influenced the way Indigenous South American people were perceived by both Western scholars and the public. Therefore, it is important to uncover the details of his oeuvre and add them to our knowledge of the history of displacement of Indigenous material culture and its transformation into museum collections. Most importantly, we must make that history available to the Indigenous, and allow them to be reunited with knowledge about their own objects, lost to them due to the activities of collectors and dealers, such as Borys Malkin.Show less
At the beginning of the 20th century, the “Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap” organized several expeditions to map the country of Suriname, which was a colony of the Netherlands...Show moreAt the beginning of the 20th century, the “Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap” organized several expeditions to map the country of Suriname, which was a colony of the Netherlands from 1667 to 1922. The main reason for organizing these expeditions was the mapping of Suriname, intending to find areas that could be exploited. During the Gonini-expedition in 1903 and Tapanahoni-expedition in 1904, there was a second goal: collecting objects of the Maroon (formerly enslaved people that escaped the plantations) and Indigenous communities living in these areas. A goal that can be explained by the growing interest in the ethnography of Indigenous people at that time. Archives and journals show that the objects collected during these expeditions were acquired by trading Indigenous and Maroon objects for Western objects. Although this can be argued to be a fair way of collecting, it is, however, important to realize the circumstances in which the objects were collected. By realizing that the expedition was started to explore more exploitable areas and also acknowledging the fact that the Dutch expedition would have not been able to collect information and objects without the help of indigenous and Maroon people as guides. This colonial context is furthermore evident in the environment they were eventually and still are placed in: The National Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands. With this in mind, this thesis discusses how the provenance of these objects can be understood in the colonial context they were collected in.Show less
The word “kimono” in the Western mindset evokes different images: a traditional item of clothing from Japan, the notion of a dressing gown to be worn indoors sometimes in intimate or even erotic...Show moreThe word “kimono” in the Western mindset evokes different images: a traditional item of clothing from Japan, the notion of a dressing gown to be worn indoors sometimes in intimate or even erotic settings, a coded femininity and a fashionable item. The object of this research is to look at three ways in which the kimono was introduced and subsequently integrated into the Western artistic, material and imaginary landscape of the turn of the 20th century: as a collectible material object, a theme in paintings and photographs as well as an influencing force in the realm of female fashion. The main idea of this paper is understanding why the kimono had such an immense popularity across these fields and audiences in the West as well as to point to the high adaptability of the garment. It is capable of undertaking several, sometimes contradictory, meanings and its simple shape, yet intricate esthetic, made it the ideal recipient of global and local dynamics of the 19th and 20th century int he West. In material culture it was presented as an Oriental accessory enabling fantasist imaginary spectacle. In art and in visual mediums, it framed the female, white body: domestic, exotic and erotic. In fashion, its slow assimilation into female dress participated into a still Orientalist but nonetheless modernizing dynamic, motivating the invention of practical and simpler garments for women living in a new world.Show less
This thesis explores the life of Nicolaes Sohier (1588-1642), a very wealthy merchant in Amsterdam during the 17th century who was also interested in art, music and architecture. The main question...Show moreThis thesis explores the life of Nicolaes Sohier (1588-1642), a very wealthy merchant in Amsterdam during the 17th century who was also interested in art, music and architecture. The main question of this thesis is: did Nicolaes Sohier use his cultural interests and cultural networks in order to climb the social ladder in Amsterdam during the first half of the 17th century? Therefore, not only his cultural interests are an important aspect of this research, but also his networks.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
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This thesis focused on several female collectors in the seventeenth century in the Low Countries and what their influence has been on for example the science of botany, garden design, and...Show moreThis thesis focused on several female collectors in the seventeenth century in the Low Countries and what their influence has been on for example the science of botany, garden design, and entomology. The main figures that are discussed are Maria Sybilla Merian, Magdalena Poulle, and Agnes Block.Show less
This study explores folk art through Elisabeth Houtzager’s collection of Native American folk art at the National Museum of Ethnology (NME) in Leiden, Netherlands. The Houtzager collection at the...Show moreThis study explores folk art through Elisabeth Houtzager’s collection of Native American folk art at the National Museum of Ethnology (NME) in Leiden, Netherlands. The Houtzager collection at the NME is comprised of circa 4,000 objects of folk art from around the world, and was acquired from Houtzager by the NME in 1993. Research began as part of an internship project held at the NME. The objects of focus comprise a sample of Native American Pueblo pottery and its makers from the Southwestern United States. During initial research of the collection, it became apparent that folk art is a relatively complex matter and occupies a unique position in the world of material culture. This thesis expands on the results of the internship, and seeks to answer questions primarily including: What motivated Houtzager to collect folk art so extensively? Why did the NME accept Houtzager’s large collection of folk art in 1993? In order to broach these questions, one must investigate: What is folk art, and how does it relate to other objects such as ethnographic artefacts and art? The concept of folk art eludes a concrete definition, and can be best understood by recognizing a conglomeration of interpretations. An examination of the Native American art market in 20th century Southwest United States reveals a host of dynamics that may have influenced individuals and institutions to collect objects like folk art. Changes in the lives and careers of the makers of the Pueblo pottery in Houtzager’s collection led to innovations, individuality, and competition in the folk art community in the American Southwest, and created the setting in which Houtzager was traveling, socialising, and thus influencing her purchases of folk art. Individuals collect objects for various reasons, whether as an obsession, a pursuit for a complete collection, an expression of identity, or a memento from events or souvenir from travels. Given the environment in which Houtzager collected, it may be speculated that her travels and personal connections with the pottery makers represented in her collection lent to feelings of nostalgia through the objects. On an institutional level, museums of all types including ethnology, art, folk art, natural history, serve a certain purpose to the collections, staff, and public. Choices in museum collecting are influenced by the interplay between these actors. Today, folk art can be found in many different types of museums. In this study, interviews with three curators from the NME with varied disciplinary backgrounds, reflected a variety of opinions of folk art, and its situation within the institutional setting of museums. With the already discussed indefinable aspect of folk art in mind, these current movements in museums of all types to collect or display folk art contributes to the story of folk art as an issue in the contemporary museum world.Show less
Colonial Collecting and its Motivations - This paper is about Cornelis George Vattier Kraane (1864-1954)and his colonial collecting activities in the Dutch East Indies. The motivation behind...Show moreColonial Collecting and its Motivations - This paper is about Cornelis George Vattier Kraane (1864-1954)and his colonial collecting activities in the Dutch East Indies. The motivation behind colonial collecting are researched and applied to this.Show less
