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 classes to young talented art students in the Academy in 2004. In 2007, one of his young scholars was selected as the Africa-Caribbean Art Scholar, granting him a summer scholarship to Parson’s School of Art & Design in New York. Very recently, another student, whom the art master had trained for many years, was offered a partial scholarship to a highly reputable art and design university 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 in perceiving 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 Soeki Irodikromo, whom he respected.

Ruben Karsters was perhaps Suriname’s 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, combined with – his inimitable imaginative execution – was deeply reminiscent of the Flemish masters from the Renaissance. As art master, Professor Karsters had given art classes to scores of artists in Suriname, including Jules Brand-flu, Cliff San A Jong, and TMC’s Martin Slagtand – all of whom he fondly remembered as very gifted artists.

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 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, Bouterse’s 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, Sabitrie 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 and Peace , “The Rubens of Suriname is gone to the great beyond again!”

Venezuela's beloved, transformative dynamic Hugo Chavez dies

President Bouterse, President Chavez and the Iconic KarstersKarsters  " Portrait of Hope and Peace"

After two years of battling cancer, President Hugo Chavez  died today at 4.25 pm.

Vice-president Nicolas Maduro made the announcement on public television.Military and Bolivarian police have been sent out into the street to protect the people and maintain the peace.  

Maduro made the announcement just a few hours after addressing the nation for an hour, accusing the opposition of taking advantage of the current situation to cause destabilisation.

“Those who die for life, can’t be called dead,” Maduro concluded. 

President Chavez in Suriname

In Caracas, thousands of people have gathered in Plaza Bolivar and are said to be heading to the Miraflores Palace. Those gathered are shouting that "Chavez lives, the struggle continues," "the people united will never be defeated," as well as swearing that the Venezuelan bourgeoisie "will never return" to the Miraflores Palace.

Chavez was a close friend of President Bouterse who presented him with Prof. Ruben Karster's Iconic painting - A Portrait of Hope and Peace --the 4 Ms.when he visited Suriname in 2010.

Karster's painting portrays four visionaries of the 20th century who challenged the world to go beyond conventional thinking to shape societies with more potent living values for all mankind.  These men, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X not only successfully transformed their lives though searing experiences, but posed searching questions for all of us, including subsequent generations of leaders.

President Chavez was obviously delighted that the President and people of Suriname saw his political efforts in a similar category to those in the portrait.  At the presentation, he was quick to point to the picture of Malcolm X as he recognised that the artist, Ruben Karsters had boldly moved beyond conventional views; he saw Malcolm as a remarkable person who had transformed himself into a visionary leader who could move many with his witty and eloquent insights.
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Master Artist Prof Ruben Karsters at work on a painting for Fidel Castro

Today Master Artist and modern day Ruben--Prof. Ruben Karsters also passed away in Suriname. AlphaMax Academy and Suriname mourns the loss of a humble genius who quietly reached out across the world to project values of truth and integrity through fine art. He changed the vision of countless young people in Suriname. He inspired AlphaMax's message of Hope and Peace to the world by setting the theme for the creative work of the school. 

The AlphMax Academy and the Ideals of Tagore

The Trustees, Administrators, Faculty, Staff, Students and Friends of the AlphaMax Academy have welcomed the arrival, installation and unveiling of the bust of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore on the lawns of our relatively small school.  To mark Tagore’s 150^th Birth Anniversary Year, a great honour has been bestowed upon us as an institution inSuriname.  We are deeply appreciative to the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), the Embassy of India, and our First Lady, Mrs. Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring. 

In point of fact, it is no coincidence that the AlphaMax Academy has become home in Suriname to the bust of India’s internationally-recognized poet laureate and educator:  Rabindranath Tagore has been a largely-unseen towering figure of inspiration at our fledgling institution of learning which ranges from kindergarten to primary to secondary and post-secondary education.  From its inception in September 1998, teachers and students of the Academy have recited, often daily, those memorable words which first appeared in Tagore’s world-famous and respected collection of poetry, “Gitanjali”:

                Where the mind is without fear and head is held high

                Where knowledge is free

                Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

                                 by narrow domestic walls

                Where words come out from the depth of truth

                Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

                Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

                                 into the dreary dead sand of dead habit

                Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action

                Into that heaven of free, my dear beloved God, let us all awake.

Thus, when Suriname’s First Lady unveils the Tagore monument on June 4^th, she will not only reveal Gautam Pal’s wonderfully sculpted figure of Tagore, but she will also unveil a plaque that bears this inspiring prayer.

According to Deputy Principal of the Academy, Ir. Emiel A. Krak, “These powerful words, which have guided our hearts and minds for 13 years, are part of the nourishment of students, staff, and teachers at the Academy.  This text is one of our school anthems.  It reminds us of the key ingredients and values we are striving to inculcate within ourselves. A proper life-inspiring education should equip students, teachers, parents and members of society with a positive spirit of courage, deep self-respect and dignity, a thirst for truth, and a deep willingness to go beyond one’s prescribed boundaries in relation to narrow, inimical perspectives and actions.  S/he who possesses these qualities is awake in the real heaven of freedom.  Tagore’s words constantly call to our remembrance what is the aim of our education and our life-purposes.”

“Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore is a sacrosanct and significant Teacher [with a capital ‘T’] within the geography of this little school,” said Principal Sean F. Taylor.  “As a creative person and educator, his approach and ideas serve as a beacon and lighthouse.  He’s a trailblazer for the 21^st century.  We’ve sought without fanfare and fuss to emulate several of his educational ideals.”

When this school was established here in Zorg-en-hoop, Tagorean ideals hovered silently in the background.  We did not attempt to replicate the poet’s experiment at Shantiniketan, for the circumstances here and context – like India and elsewhere – are unique.  Of importance was the spirit and approach to education and learning.

While dispensing knowledge through a wide range of traditional disciplines across various levels, the AlphaMax has sought to cultivate a values-based learning environment and experience where teachers and students meet each other in an atmosphere of scholarship, mutual respect, creativity, and the development of expressive skills.

To help foster and enrich the holistic formation of its young scholars, the Academy devotes four of its five school days to left-brain ratiocinative development and activities, and one day to right-brain creativity.  A resilient insistence on the latter is vintage Tagore, who like his Occidental contemporaries, Rudolf Steiner and Maria Montessori deplored one-sided child development at the expense of a willful fostering and guidance of creative gifts and skills.  Indeed it is through the latter that the inner ‘child’ is nurtured and brought to a ripe maturity.  Tagore virtually enjoined it upon his students and teachers to study and work outdoors in the midst of nature.  Not only was literature, or art, but even mathematics was conducted under the jasmine bower.  

On the day when the school turns from left to right-brain activities, in addition to fine art, technical drawing, and classes on Living Values, Academy students are guided in the practice of the two most ancient oriental systems of exercise - Tai Chi and yoga asanas.  Even as students at some schools do eurhythmy, AlphaMax students learn and practice tai chi and yoga.  These ancient exercises reflect the inclusive international character of the school:  it should be said that our intent is to forge a new middle course in Suriname through tangible activities in our multi-cultural society.  While we are walking the talk about mutual respect in our activities, at the same time, our students benefit by consciously engaging in constructively guiding and directing their wills, energies, and forces.

Over the years, the creative impulses of AlphaMax students have found outlets through Academy publications and public performances at various venues.  Whereas early school productions were classical – often dramatic presentations from Shakespeare, in 2010, students presented “The Many Faces of Love” – a gala celebration of literature, song, dance, and video-presentations of the many facets of the mysterious elixir that drives existence.  One highlight of the program was the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, the centerpiece of the ‘Eros-Agape’ love-panel.  Again, in 2011, we have presented for public audiences selections from Tagore, including his “Earth Song,” a poem that is amazingly mimetic of the spirit of life in Suriname.

In 2009, AlphaMax Academy students presented the story of democracy – tracing its 18^th century roots in American society from the time of the founding fathers through the modern era, including the struggle for freedom on the Subcontinent and Africa.  The Academy’s oratorical presentation of “The Portrait of Hope & Peace” had earlier been captured in a different, yet condensed format, on canvas, by its respected Art Professor, Ruben Karsters.  The latter’s “4Ms:  A Portrait of Hope & Peace” was a celebration of leadership models for youths and future generations in the 21^st century.  Professor Karsters’ unique portrayal captured India’s Mahatma Gandhi, South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, and American activists, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

In the AlphaMax Academy, East meets West; and North and South dwell together in a relationship of mutual respect   – not one based on hegemony or obeisance or subservience.  Mindful and respectful of all cultures and faiths, we stress a common underlying unity, for all human aspirations ultimately move towards the quest for love, peace, happiness, harmony, freedom, and prosperity. 

The AlphaMax Academy is very happy to welcome this supreme artist, thinker and educator, Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore on our school lawns.  The garden here has been prepared for him, and we’re proud students will run and play amidst the blooming flamboyant trees, a sculpted likeness of the poet, fajalobis, and even orange trees planted by Miss Young Suriname and our students.  In our hearts and minds, as an educator, Tagore stands on no lower a rung than Maria Montessori, Paulo Freire, and Rudolf Steiner. 

[A more detailed version of this article is available online at:

http://alphamaxacademy-news.blogspot.com/p/tagores-ideals.html]