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7/29/2019 Ruben Karsters -A Surinamese Icon passes on
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3/6/13 Gmail - DRAFT
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Milton Drepaul
DRAFT1 message
Sean Taylor Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 12:37 PM
To: "Eugene G. Merkus"
Cc: Milton Drepaul
DRAFT PRESS RELEASE ------ 5th March, 2013
A TRUE ICON OF SURINAME HAS PASSED: Ruben Karsters, Remembering the Legend
Yesterday, the Alphamax Academy and the nation of Suriname lost one of its living artistic Legends Professor
Ruben Karsters. Born on 22nd May, 1941, he passed away at the Academic Hospital following a short illness.
Although he was rushed to the hospital earlier, efforts to revive him in the intensive care unit failed.
Professor Karsters was Head of the Art Department at the AlphaMax Academy where be began giving classesto young talented art students in the Academy in 2004. In 2008, one of his young scholars was selected as the
Africa-Caribbean Art Scholar, granting him a summer scholarship to Parsons School of Art & Design in New
York. Very recently another student, whom the art master had trained, was offered a scholarship to the reputable
Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, U.S.A..
Ruben Karsters was an autodidact who stunned experienced artists of his time with his unschooled yet deft
command of Fine Art Skills. At the tender age of seven he was clearly a young master without letters or
credentials. Thus, before he entered his teenage years he had began giving lessons to students twice his age. It
was in this period that young Ruben caught the attention of the Dutch-born artist, Nola Hatterman, who saw the
extraordinary gifts of this brilliant, gifted, rising, artistic genius.
Until his passing, when engaged in serious conversation about art, it was with a degree of mild chagrin that
Professor Karsters spoke of Nola Hattermann. While acknowledging the role she played at that time inperceiving his gifts, for Karsters, she was nonetheless a somewhat disparaging figure who took credit from the
work of other gifted artists of that time in Suriname.
In 1963 Karsters became one of the first Surinamers who travelled to the Netherlands to study Fine Art. This art
connoisseur made a clear distinction between art, Art, and Fine Art.
After six years of studying in the Netherlands he returned home Professor of Fine Art in 1968. Recently, the
visibly aging artist would often tell his close students that the rigorous study he undertook in Europe was also
done by two contemporary still living artists, Erwin de Vries and Suky Irodikromo, whom he respected.
Ruben Karsters was perhaps Surinames most celebrated and internationally recognized Fine Artist in the latter
half of the 20th century. His techniques, methodology, extremely close, incisive study of any subject, combinedwith his inimitable imaginative execution was deeply reminiscent of the Flemish masters from the
Renaissance.
According to the Vice Chairman of the AlphaMax Board of Directors, Dr Eugene Merkus, When you consider
this man and his remarkable gifts, it is not an overstatement that Professor Karsters is irreplaceable. This holds
true not just for our home-grown international school, the AlphaMax Academy, here in Paramaribo, but to our
country, Suriname. Professor Karsters will be deeply missed in circles beyond the walls of this school and these
shores where he lived.
Ruben Karsters was the fine artist who executed in 2007 the now famous Portrait of Hope & Peace: The Four
Ms which was made internationally famous when President Desire Bouterse presented the masterpiece-painting
to the now-deceased President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in November 2010. This work of art was
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commissioned by the Directors of the AlphaMax to inspire aspiring young leaders and the coming generation with
exemplars of personal self-transformation, sacrifice, and service.
In an MSNBC public opinion poll, Bouterses gift to Chavez was voted as one of the top three Most Appropriate
Gifts given in 2010 by one head of state to another. The Karsters-Bouterse-Chavez gift was preferred above
other state gifts from leaders of the first world, including Putin and Obama.
Ironically, Professor Karsters passed away on the self-same day as President Hugo Chavez of the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela.
After his highly successful Portrait of Hope & Peace, in 2011 and 2012, Professor Karsters also executed
artworks which were presented internationally. One observer has stated that perhaps the year prior to his demise
will be acknowledged as Karsters annus mirabilis.
Ruben Karsters has had the distinction of being perhaps the only fine artist in Suriname to have painted the
current leader and President of the Republic, Desire Bouterse, twice: First, as the young revolutionary leader in
the 1980s, and more recently, in 2012, the mature astute statesman playing his vital role on the international
stage as the Father of his people.
Ruben Karsters is survived by his wife, Sabritrie Karsters-Sewpersad, and their three children, Cheranie, Vasilie,
and Irina. He is also survived by his son, Anthony, from a previous marriage.
According to a Director of the AlphaMax which had commissioned the Karsters Portrait of Hope & Peace, TheRubens of Suriname is gone to the great beyond again!