7/29/2019 Distinguished Suriname Portraitist Ruben Karsters Dies at 71

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Professor Ruben Karsters ,head of the AlphaMax Academy died on Tuesday

5th March. Karsters was 71 years old .

Karsters spent nine years teaching the talented students at AlphaMax.

Among his many achievements at the school was getting one of his students

selected in 2008 as the Africa-Caribbean Art Scholar to Parsons School of Art& Design in New York. In the last two weeks another of his students was

offered a scholarship to the Internationally famous Savanna School of Art and

Design (SCAD).

Professor Karsters spent six years studying Fine Art in Holland in the 1960's.

Art connoisseurs both in Suriname and abroad regard Ruben Karsters as

Portraitist of the highest level.

The poet Ivan Khayiat describes Karsters' approach in this way: "Karsters has

spent the better part of sixty years seeking to perceive objects in ever-

deepening clarity to the point of seeking out ever-deeply everysubtle,hidden nuance of tone, colour, shade and shadow ever-present in the

world of objective reality. This is the devout passion of Ruben Karsters

artistic consciousness."

The President of Suriname honored Karsters by selecting the now famous

Portrait of Hope and Peace: The Four Ms as his state gift to the late

President of Venezuela-- Hugo Chavez. in November 2010. The Directors of

the AlphaMax had commissioned this painting in 2007 to inspire young

leaders with the outstanding life work of four of the most transformative

leaders of the 20th century.

Khayiat describes the piece in his review.

Its a nostalgic reflective study of four masters of politics by the master of art

himself. The glowing liberated faces of Mohandas Gandhi and Nelson

Mandela appear above the contemplative, serious almost troubled - busts

of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, the American freedom fighters, also

men of colour. Indeed,gazing to his left, the beaming, joyous face of the

Mahatma, the apostle of peace, clad in white the son of India and father of

the modern independence movement appears to have inoculated and

infected his dancing counterpart, Nelson Mandela; both freedom fighters,

who ironically were dramatically pitted at differing periods againstentrenched Dutch who ironically were dramatically pitted at differing periods

against entrenched Dutch supremacy and interests in Southern Africa.

An MSNBC online poll in December 2010 voted Bouterses gift to Chavez as

one of the top three Most Appropriate Gifts given by one head of state to

another.

7/29/2019 Distinguished Suriname Portraitist Ruben Karsters Dies at 71

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Today as we learnt that President Chavez has also passed away we relect

that perhaps the divine forces want us to cement the link between President

Bouterse, President Chavez, Ruben Karsters and the ideals expressed in A

Portrait of Hope and Peace which has been the focus of AlphaMax Academy's

creative work since 2007.

Professor Karsters was further honored by the govenment of Suriname by

having more speciaaly commissioned work presented to heads of state.

Ivan Khayiat ,the poet, has been particularly inspired to write poems for each

of these works. Khayiat also chose a painting of Karsters' daughter as the

cover for his award winning book of poetry ' Msiba, My Love". The cover of a

collection of AlphaMax Academy student writing-- " Surviving the Ordeal'

(2007) was also graced with a reproduction of a Karsters painting.

The President of Suriname Desi Bouterse has been an admirer of Karsters'

work and he confided that he has two portraits of himself done by

Karsters.One shows him as the young revolutionary leader of the 1980s, and

the second done in 2012, as the reflective,mature elder statesman and

international leader.

Ruben Karsters leaves behind his wife, Sabritrie and three children,

Cheranie, Vasilie, and Irina. He also has a son, Anthony, from a former

marriage.

The AlphaMax community expresses its thanks and appreciation to Ruben

Karsters for a life fully lived and devoted to shaping the talents and ideals of

the youth.