Nelson Mandela & Suriname’s “Portrait of Hope & Peace”

Nelson Mandela, the fourth and last-living icon on Professor Ruben Karsters’ renowned “Portrait of Hope of Peace:  The Four Ms”, passed away on Friday, December 5th, 2013, in the land of his birth, South Africa.  Mr Mandela was 95 years of age.

His Excellency, Desire D. Bouterse, the President of the Republic of Suriname and a long-time admirer of the former President of South Africa, joined scores of other heads of state from around the world – all of whom converged on the southernmost nation-state on the horn of Africa, to pay their last respects to  the legendary African leader who following incarceration for over two decades emerged triumphant, vindicated, to lead his oppressors and fellow-black and non-black supporters as the era of Boer-instigated apartheid was finally brought to a close in dramatic peace, reconciliation, and harmony in the mid-1990s.

Suriname’s First Lady, Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs also attended the funeral ceremonies which drew billions of sympathetic television viewers worldwide – the likes of which mirrored the farewell rite and service for Mother Theresa of Calcutta.

Nelson Mandela’s rise to political prominence and world respect in the 1990s spanned a struggle of more than four decades.  The village boy from Qunu became an international symbol and icon of protracted struggle and hope that finally yielded the once-impossible, triumphant victory.

In 2006-2007, Suriname’s Professor Ruben Karsters captured on canvas four icons from the 20th century with the specific purpose of inspiring through visual imagery young people and future leaders of the 21st century.  In his portrait, “The Four Ms”, Karsters chose to portray Mahatma Gandhi of India, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X of the United States of America, and Nelson Mandela of South Africa.

There are historic, geographic and natural connections between all four iconic freedom-fighters:  Gandhi’s rise to political prominence began in the country of Mandela’s birth and struggle, South Africa.  Although the two men never met, they both faced on African soil the same monstrosity, ‘aparthied’.  All four men were considered ‘dangerous’ by the status quo and faced incarceration for their outspoken moral stand on the issues of their day.  And in the process of taking clear, unflinching, moral stands – what Mahatma Gandhi termed ‘satyagraha’ (truth-force), they galvanized not just people in their immediate locales, but hundreds of millions worldwide.  Given the fear they generated and the ‘urgency’ of their specific moments in the 20th century, three were assassinated at the hands of their own countrymen - Gandhi in 1948, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X in 1968.

Ironically, of the four, after decades of protests which had spread across the earth – becoming even an international embarrassment as the incessant rumble rose clarion-strong in the United Nations, only Nelson Mandela came to full bloom, democratically elected as President from 1994 - 1999, before his retirement from public life, and acquiescence at the ripe old age of 95.  Finally, the souls of all four men chose bodies of ‘color’ and the soles of their feet trod the soil of the oft-despised continent, Africa.

Little wonder, Ruben Karsters’ portrayed these four iconic men who symbolized sacrifice and personal self-transformation by ordinary folk amidst the angst, struggle and undying quest for betterment, not just for themselves but future generations, regardless of color, clime, or creed.

Upon completion, Professor Karster’s Portrait of the Four Ms, first went on public display at Suriname’s Fort Zeelandia Museum & Art Gallery.  It was part of an exhibition sponsored by the Embassy of India entitled “Indian Resonances in Suriname” – and precisely because the Mahatma was among the 4Ms, there was logical reason for its inclusion.

In October 2007, the Karsters’ Portrait journeyed to India where – sponsored by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) – it was on display for about eight weeks in New Delhi.  There were numerous anecdotes and accolades on the sub-continent about the unusually unique Portrait which for the first time suggested a metaphoric connection between the four freedom fighters – two from the new world and two from the ancient world.  One wealthy admirer was so enamored in India that he offered Karsters ‘any price’ for the painting.  The latter, however, perceiving a greater purpose beyond that of the Portrait gracing one person’s private collection, returned to Suriname with the masterpiece.

In 2010, when Suriname’s freedom fighter and nationalist, Desire D. Bouterse, finally came to power, through free and fair democratic elections, President Bouterse took the bold decision to adopt Ruben Karsters’ “Portrait of Hope & Peace:  the Four Ms” as his official state gift.

The Presidential Gift achieved a rare amplitude in November 2010 when President Bouterse presented the Karsters’ Portrait in person to the President of Venezuela, the late Hugo Frias Chavez.  The significance of the gift was reflected in an independent MSNBC poll which selected the Bouterse-Chavez gift as one of the top three best and most appropriate gifts from one head of state to another in 2010.  Karsters’ life-like and brilliantly executed “Four Ms” portrait was selected above gifts from heads of state in the U.S., Russia, U.K., Middle East, and elsewhere.

Undoubtedly the “Four Ms” was the highlight of the Karsters artistic career which began for the autodidact at the age of seven.  However, the sudden passing of Professor Ruben Karsters on March 5th, 2013, following a brief illness, gave some admirers cause for reflection because the artistic genius died on the same day as Hugo Frias Chavez, the Bolivarian freedom-fighter from Venezuela.

Prior to his own demise, on the occasion of an earlier meeting, Ruben Karsters had requested that the President of Suriname also present the painting to Nelson Mandela.  Sources close to the President indicated that he had hoped to do so in person.   However, on account of Mandela’s sustained illness and convalescence, a likely meeting between the two freedom-fighters did not take place.

 Nelson Mandela, the South African boxer, lawyer, freedom-fighter and Marxist, who joyfully triumphed over adversity, and like Jesus and Gandhi magnanimously forgave his jailors and oppressors, to become an international icon, has been captured in inimitable joyful form on a canvas that is undoubtedly Suriname’s most famous painting to date, “The Portrait of Hope & Peace: the 4 Ms.”

A Caribbean poet, resident in Suriname, memorialized his first encounter with the Karsters’ art-piece in verse that reflects the essence of the painting

One Shakti
One century
One trajectory

Seamlessly staged
Meteoric rocket fired forth
Morphing the old in the new

One world of Gaea
Rta, the goal, Ananda
Shanti Om!
                    Ivan A. Khayiat © 2007

Thus, as the eternal flame, honoring the world-renowned fallen South African statesman and hero of struggling people, burns bright on a hillside in Mandela’s boyhood village in Qunu, South Africa, it will do likewise in Suriname and the Caribbean for generations to come.

Remembering Mandela in his words

Presidents Bouterse and Chavez with Portrait of Hope and Peace 

Nelson Mandela, the revered statesman who emerged from prison after 27 years to lead South Africa out of decades of apartheid, died on December 5, 2013.

In a nation healing from the scars of apartheid, Mandela became a moral compass. His defiance of white minority rule and incarceration for fighting against segregation focused the world's attention on apartheid, the legalized racial segregation enforced by the South African government until 1994.

In this Note we will remember Nelson Mandela by some of his quotes.

"Difficulties break some men but make others."

"I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles."

"Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people."

"A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of."

"Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do."

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

"Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies."

"Lead from the back - and let others believe they are in front."

"I hate race discrimination most intensely and in all its manifestations."

"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."

"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."

"We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right."

"A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed."

"If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness."

Mandela and Fidel Castro

Nelson Mandela with Mohammed Ali

Kwasi Basi- for Ruben Karsters by Dr.Eugene Merkus

Kwasi Basi
In Memoriam Ruben Karsters 22 mei 1941 – 5 maart 2013
We ben kan syi ini yu ay
Dati yu yuru ben kon doro
Yu ben musu fu gowe hesbitem
Go na a wroko presi trasey
Now yu de hey na ini luktu
Na da bigi brinki krin-leti
Verfi wolku en kloru dey
Nafu dati ede
We e skrifi na puwema disi
Spesrutu gi yu ma pikinso gi we tu
Fu memre prakseri
We e wensi yu alla bun
Nanga alla we yeye lobi
Ini bun tem mah
Ooktu ini tranga tem
Tidey nafu yu, a de bika
Wan tradey we e kari tamara
　

Kwasi basi
Man furu nanga yeye faya
So fya komoto na we mindri
A gowe fu tang de tru,
Na trasey wroko presi
Yu ben de dya na grontapu
Mindri we wan tru winiman
Wan krasi anu kwasibasi
Ini a wey fu libi makandra
Yu gi yu srefi abra nanga
Alla kragti ini yu libiskin
Bun tem nanga takru tem
Yu e gowe now wroko-tapu
Yeye de klari fu teki da pasi
Dan yu e opo we fu syi krin
Tyari we go frey te na hey
Abra sabana pasa bigi tiri watra

Sukrem 5 maart 2013 © 2013 All Rights Reserved
　

Ruben Karsters will be cremated Today- Monday 11 March

Ruben Karsters who died last Tuesday will be cremated in Paramaribo on Monday 11 March.

Self Portrait by Ruben Karsters

Services will begin at 3.00pm and the cremation will be at 5pm.at Hennep on Dr.Sophieredmonstraat. Dr. Eugene Merkus will be Master of Ceremonies.

On Sunday the traditional Singing Night was held at no.20 Standvastasastraat. Family and friends  gathered from 8 pm to 11 pm.

We hope to see his friends, colleagues and students. Those who are abroad have been sending their condolences on Social Media.

SURINAME verliest een ware icoon: RUBEN KARSTERS, Remembering the Legend.

ALPHAMAX ACADEMY

Stanvastestraat 18-24

Paramaribo, Suriname

Tel. (597) 400566, 400588, 401356, FAX 401356

Email: info@alphamaxacademy.com

www.alphamaxacademy.com

Motto: “In Diligent Pursuit of Excellence”OFFICIELE PERS BERICHT – 8 maart 2013

Paramaribo, Suriname

SURINAME verliest een ware icoon: RUBEN KARSTERS, Remembering the Legend.

Gisteren verloren de Alphamax Academy en het volk van Suriname één van haar levende artistieke legendes - Professor Ruben Karsters. Geboren op 22 mei 1941, overleed hij in het Academisch Ziekenhuis na een kortstondige ziekte.  Hoewel hij eerder met spoed naar het ziekenhuis werd gebracht is de poging om hem in leven te houden op de intensive care unit zonder resultaat gebleven.

Professor Karsters was hoofd van de Art Department van de Alphamax Academy waar hij in 2003 begon lessen te geven aan jonge talentvolle kunststudenten.  In 2007 werd een van zijn jonge studenten geselecteerd als de Afrika-Caraïben Art Scholar, Deze uitverkiezing bezorgde hem een zomer beurs voor Parson's School of Art en Design in New York.  Zeer recent werd aan een andere student, die de meester-kunstenaar voor vele jaren heeft getraind, een gedeeltelijke beurs aangeboden van een ​​zeer gerenommeerde kunst en design universiteit in Georgia, USA.

Ruben Karsters was een autodidact die ervaren kunstenaars van zijn tijd verbijsterd liet staan met zijn ongeschoolde doch bekwame behandeling van Schone Kuns/Fine Art Skills.  Op de prille leeftijd van zeven jaar was hij al zeer duidelijk de jonge meester zonder papieren of referenties.  Dus, nog voordat hij zijn tienerjaren had bereikt begon hij met het geven van lessen aan studenten die twee keer zo oud waren.  Het was in deze periode dat de jonge Ruben de aandacht trok van de Nederlandse kunstenaar, Nola Hatterman.  Die zag de buitengewone en uitzonderlijke gaven van deze briljante, getalenteerde, rijzende, artistieke genie.

Tot aan zijn overlijden, was het dat als hij betrokken werd in een serieus gesprek over kunst, professor Karsters over Nola Hattermann sprak met een zekere mate van milde “ergernis”.  Tegelijkertijd erkennend de rol die ze op dat moment speelde in het waarnemen van zijn gaven.  Voor Karsters, was ze toch een wat gewiekste persoon die met de eer streek van het werk van andere getalenteerde kunstenaars van die tijd in Suriname.

In 1963 was Karsters een van de eerste Surinamers die naar Nederland ging om Schone Kunsten/"Fine Art." te studeren.Deze kunstkenner maakte een duidelijk onderscheid tussen 'kunst', 'Kunst' en Schone Kunst/'Fine Art”.

Na zes jaar studeren in Nederland keerde hij in 1968 terug naar huis, Swieti Sranan, hoogleraar in de Schone Kunst/Fine Art.  Onlangs, zou de zichtbare ouder wordende meester-kunstenaar vaak zijn naaste leerlingen vertellen dat de uitputtende en zware studie die hij in Europa onderging ook werd gedaan door twee hedendaagse nog levende kunstenaars, Erwin de Vries en Soeki Irodikromo, die hij respecteert.

Ruben Karsters was misschien wel Suriname's meest gevierde en internationaal erkende Schone Kunst artiest/"Fine Artist" in de tweede helft van de 20e eeuw.  Zijn technieken, methodologie, zeer nauwe, scherpe studie van elk onderwerp, in combinatie met - zijn onnavolgbare fantasierijke uitvoering – doet uitermate sterk denken aan de Vlaamse meesters uit de Renaissance.   Als meester-kunstenaar, heeft professor Karsters kunstlessen gegeven aan tal van kunstenaars in Suriname, met inbegrip van Jules Brand-Flu, Cliff San A Jong, en TMC Martin Slagtand - allen van wie hij zich liefdevol herinnerde als zeer begaafde kunstenaars.

Volgens de vice-voorzitter van de Alphamax Raad van Bestuur, dr. Eugene Merkus,

"Als je deze man met zijn opmerkelijke gaven moet beschouwen, is het niet overdreven te stellen dat professor Karsters onvervangbaar is.  Dit geldt niet alleen voor onze eigen in Suriname gewortelde internationale school, de Alphamax Academy, hier in Paramaribo, maar in ons land, Suriname.

Professor Karsters zal sterk worden gemist in kringen tot ver buiten de muren van deze school en dit stukje aarde genaamd Suriname waar hij woonde en werkte. "

Ruben Karsters was de beeldende kunstenaar die in 2007 het ondertussen beroemde "Portret van Hope en Peace: The Four Ms" creëerde.  Het portret kreeg internationale bekendheid toen president Desire Delano Bouterse dit schilderij, het meesterwerk, in november 2010 als nationaal geschenk presenteerde aan de nu overleden president Hugo Chavez van Venezuela.   Dit kunstwerk is in opdracht van de directeuren van de Alphamax uitgevoerd om jonge aspirant-leiders en de komende generatie te inspireren met voorbeelden van persoonlijke zelftransformatie, opoffering en dienstbaarheid.

In een MSNBC opiniepeiling, werd Desi Bouterse's geschenk aan Chavez gerangschikt als één van de top drie 'meest geschikte cadeaus" die in 2010 door een staatshoofd aan de andere werd gegeven.

Het Karsters – Bouterse - Chavez geschenk kreeg de voorkeur boven andere staatsgiften van de leiders uit de eerste wereld, met inbegrip van Poetin en Obama.

Frappant genoeg, professor Karsters overleed op precies dezelfde dag en nagenoeg dezelfde tijd als president Hugo Chavez van de Bolivariaanse Republiek Venezuela.

Na zijn zeer succesvolle Portret van Hoop en Vrede, in 2011 en 2012, heeft Professor Karsters ook kunstwerken uitgevoerd die internationaal werden gepresenteerd.  Een waarnemer heeft verklaard dat misschien wel het jaar voorafgaand aan zijn overlijden zal worden erkend als Karsters’ ''annus mirabilis“.

Ruben Karsters heeft het onderscheid vermogen gehad om misschien als de enige beeldend kunstenaar in Suriname de huidige leider en president van de Republiek, Desire Delano Bouterse, twee keer te mogen portretteren (schilderen).  De eerste maal als de jonge revolutionaire leider in de jaren 1980, en meer recentelijk, in 2012, de volwassen scherpzinnige staatsman die zijn belangrijke plaats inneemt op het internationale politiek wereldtoneel als de Vader van zijn natie.

Ruben Karsters wordt laat achter zijn vrouw, Sabitrie Karsters - Sewpersad, en hun drie kinderen, Cheranie, Vasilie, en Irina.Hij laat ook achter zijn zoon, Anthony, uit een eerder huwelijk.

Volgens een directeur van het Alphamax die de opdracht gaf voor Karsters 'Portret van Hope en Peace,’  "De Rubens van Suriname is weer terug gegaan naar het uitgestrekte hiernamaals!"

Master Artist of Suriname Professor Ruben Karsters passes on

Professor Ruben Karsters, Head of the Art Department at AlphaMax Academy, died earlier today. Karsters was 71 years old. He was teaching his students up to last Thursday. He took a turn for the worse on Monday and was rushed to the Intensive Unit of the Academic Hospital on Tuesday.

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 2007 as the Africa-Caribbean Art Scholar to Parson’s School of Art & Design in New York. In the last two weeks another of his students was offered a partial scholarship to the internationally-famous Savannah School of Art and Design (SCAD).

Professor Karsters spent six years studying Fine Art in Holland in the 1960s. Art connoisseurs both in Suriname and abroad regard Ruben Karsters as a sublime portraitist at the highest level.

The poet and writer, Ivan A. 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 every subtle, 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 in 2010 by selecting the now famous “Portrait of Hope and Peace: The Four Ms” as his official 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 Karsters’ masterpiece in his review, Indian Resonances in Suriname, thus:

[The painting is]... 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 ironically were dramatically pitted at differing periods against entrenched Dutch supremacy and interests in Southern Africa.

An MSNBC online poll in December 2010 voted Bouterse’s gift to Chavez as one of the top three ‘Most Appropriate Gifts” given by one head of state to another.

Today, as we learned that President Chavez has also passed away, we reflect 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 subsequently further honored by the government of Suriname who specially commissioned other paintings presented to heads of state.

Ivan Khayiat , the poet, has been particularly inspired to write poems for each of these works. Non-coincidentally, 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 for several decades. Art connoisseurs know that Karsters executed two portraits of Desi Bouterse: One shows him as the young revolutionary leader of the 1980s, and the second, done in 2012, portrays the reflective, mature elder statesman, and international leader.

Ruben Karsters leaves behind his wife, Sabitrie and their three children, Cheranie, Vasilie, and Irina. He also has a son, Anthony, from a former marriage.

The AlphaMax community expresses its heartfelt thanks and deepest appreciation to Ruben Karsters for a life fully lived and devoted service he rendered in shaping the talents and ideals of youths.

Karsters Art Awards

At the close of the academic year 2004-2005, the very first year after Art Professor Ruben Karsters joined the faculty at the AlphaMax Academy, with the school administration, the school instituted two Art Awards.  Professor Karsters selected with care the recipients of these Academy Art Awards for it was a statement and accolade recognizing the gifts and talents of his students.

Below is a listing of all the students who received the AlphaMax Academy Art Awards:

Most Outstanding and Most Improved, starting from 2004 to 2012.

The Academy’s Art Awards         2004

                Most Outstanding:          Sabrina Lall          Isaiah Wiebers                  Almond Carr

                Most Improved:             Therese Dover      Georgo Boerleider            Vijoya Taylor

The Academy’s Art Awards         2005

                Most Outstanding:          Georgo Boerleider          Almond Carr

                Most Improved:              Shoghi Mantri                 Isaiah Wiebers

The Academy’s Art Awards         2006

                Most Outstanding:          Almond Carr       You Lee Ko

                Most Improved:                               Shoghi Mantri    Vijoya Taylor

The Academy’s Art Awards         2008

                Most Outstanding:          Nicole Tjon-Kie-Sim        Sharen-Vess Schaap

                Most Improved:             Kristina Taylor    Michelle Partoredjo        Shiromani Heilbron

The Academy’s Art Awards         2009

                Most Outstanding:          Vijoya Taylor      Sharen-Vess Schaap       Kristina Taylor

The Academy’s Art Awards         2010

                Most Outstanding:          Emily Jong Tjien Fa          Sharen-Vess Schaap      

                Most Improved:             Marysa Brandflu               Jason Hoppie

The Academy’s Art Awards         2011

                Most Outstanding:          Alvin Beckles

                Most Improved:             Shafeek Nazir

The Academy’s Art Awards         2012

                Most Outstanding:          Ruth Saman        Vinantia Nandlal

                Most Improved:             Alain Soekhlal    Daniel Kolf          Aaqil Wazir

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!”

Professsor Ruben Karsters passes.

Karster's Famous Portrait of Hope and Peace 

Professor Ruben Karsters,head of the AlphaMax Academy died earlier today. Karsters was 71 years old . He was teaching his students up to last Thursday. He took a turn for the worse on Monday and was rushed to the Intensive Unit of the Academic Hospital on Tuesday.

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 Parson’s 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 a sublime portraitist at the highest level. 


The poet and writer, Ivan A. 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 every subtle,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 & Peace:  The Four Ms” as his state gift to the late President  of Venezuela-- Hugo Chavez of Venezuela 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 Karsters’ masterpiece in his review, Indian Resonances in Suriname, thus: 
[The painting is]... 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 ironically were dramatically pitted at differing periods against entrenched Dutch supremacy and interests in Southern Africa.

An MSNBC online poll in December 2010 voted Bouterse’s gift to Chavez as one of the top three ‘Most Appropriate Gifts” given by one head of state to another.  

Today as we learnt that President Chavez has also passed away we reflect 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.

The Master Fine Artist at work

Professor Karsters was further honored by the government 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.  Non-coincidentally,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 student writing-- " Surviving the Ordeal' was 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 heartfelt thanks and deepest appreciation to Ruben Karsters for a life fully lived and devoted service he rendered in shaping the talents and ideals of youths.