Final selection announced for Long Live Rembrandt summer exhibition

This summer at the Rijksmuseum the public are taking centre stage: from primary school pupils to established artists; from finance controllers to cabinet makers. Earlier this year, more than 8,000 people from 95 countries answered our open call to submit self-made artworks inspired by Rembrandt. The panel of judges has now made its final selection of 563 artworks for inclusion in the Long Live Rembrandt exhibition at the Rijksmuseum. The artists themselves will open the exhibition on 15 July, Rembrandt’s birthday. Long Live Rembrandt will run to 15 September 2019 in the Philips Wing of the Rijksmuseum.

The jury finally made their selection based on reoccurring themes in the submissions, all of which will be reflected in the Long Live Rembrandt exhibition.

Pieter Roelofs, chair of the panel and head of painting and sculpture at the Rijksmuseum: The infectious creativity of the artists and the sheer variety of submissions has made the selection and curation of this exhibition an absolute joy. In the past week hundreds of participants have brought in their artworks – the youngest is 4 years old, the oldest 90. All these artists are paying tribute to Rembrandt, to art, and to the making of art.

Each of the selected artworks tells its own story – some are uplifting, while others are emotionally moving. Many of the artists drew inspiration from Rembrandt in their portraits of a love partner, child, father, mother, friend or themselves. Another sizeable portion of the submissions for Long Live Rembrandt were based on an existing painting or famous print by Rembrandt. Some entrants made a direct copy, while others used variations in style, medium, technique or created a conceptual artwork. 90 interpretations of The Night Watch, 260 artworks of children and 118 Rembrandt sculptures in the exhibition testify to the dazzling creativity of all the artists involved.

Irma Boom is the exhibition designer and graphic designer. A newspaper containing an overview of all the artworks will be published to accompany the exhibition.

This year is the 350th anniversary of the death of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), reason enough to honour Rembrandt and give extra attention to the artist, his work, his contemporaries and the 17th century. The year-long theme of Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age brings all these aims together, with many exhibitions and activities taking place around the Netherlands. The Rijksmuseum will close this year of celebrations with the exhibition Rembrandt-Velázquez, Dutch and Spanish Masters (11 October 2019 to 19 January 2020), which presents masterpieces by Rembrandt and his contemporaries on loan from museums such as Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Long Live Rembrandt is partnered by Zwarte Cross Festival.