‘Whoooa, that’s gruesome!’ is what Sanne Hansler thought when she opened one of the large drawers with prints and illustrations at the University Library one morning. ‘I was suddenly face to face with a devil. The way it looked at me made me jump.’
Hansler, staff member special collections services at the University Library, is talking about a nineteenth-century print by David Humbert de Superville depicting a grinning Satan with blood-red eyes and razor-sharp teeth.
CREEPY AND STRANGE
‘We have several of his drawings of devils and monsters in our collection. Humbert de Superville was the director of the very first Leiden Print Room and shaped the early collection, which makes it extra special that his work is on display in the exhibition.’
Last Saturday, the exhibition Hello Darkness, my old Friend was opened at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, featuring seventy macabre, creepy and strange works from the University Library’s collection.
The title is the first line from the well-known song The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel. ‘The idea came to me when I was on the train and suddenly all the lights went out. I made a video about it and added that line. It’s a title that appeals to the older generation because it’s a beautiful melancholic song, but the lyrics are also used in meme culture, so it’s something young people are familiar with as well.’
The exhibition came about somewhat coincidentally. ‘I was having a drink with one of the Kunsthal's curators and said: “We have a wonderful collection of prints and illustrations, should you be interested.” The next day, we received a call from the museum: there was room for a new exhibition. Kunsthal curator Shehera Grot had seen the often rather spooky images from the collection on my Instagram account. As a child, I used to love ghost stories and Grimm’s grim fairy tales. Little Red Riding Hood is pretty gruesome, of course: being devoured by a wolf and a belly being cut open and filled with stones – yikes.’
ROTTING FLESH
Her fascination with the macabre stems from ‘my nerdiness’, says Hansler. ‘I used to be a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a TV series about a girl who must balance her high school life with driving wooden stakes through vampire hearts. It’s not just a series about killing demons but also a feminist coming-of-age story. It’s a woman battling evil and facing it with violence, but it’s also about the tragedy of everyday life, because that’s also very scary, of course. I love works that are strange but also very powerful.’
Hansler points to Albrecht Dürer's Knight, Death and the Devil from 1513. ‘In this engraving, the depiction of death is different from what we are used to today. Not a Grim Reaper but rather a figure that somewhat resembles a “white walker” from the series Game of Thrones.’ There is still rotting flesh on his face and he has eyes, hair and a beard. ‘It seems like the creators of the series were inspired by the way death was depicted in the Renaissance.’
One of the contemporary works on display at the Kunsthal is The Global Inquisition part 1 and 2 by Natasja Kensmil. It’s a reflection on Dutch colonialism. ‘Her work is quite socially engaged. The drawings show a man and a woman in seventeenth-century attire looking at each other. The Golden Age was only golden for certain people. Lots of bats are flying around the woman. The man’s eyes look scary and there’s a severed head on the ground.’
Some works were chosen because they are ‘extremely strange’, like The Music Lesson for Cats by François Ragot. ‘Cats are seated on the head and both shoulders of the music teacher. The cats on the shoulders are farting in his face. It’s not immediately obvious, but suddenly you notice and think: “Excuse me, what?”’
SNEAKY GLANCE
There are also suggestive images on display. ‘A print by Joos de Bosscher shows women fighting over a sausage. You can probably imagine what that refers to, especially since a falling woman’s skirt is lifted up.’
All sorts of monstrosities, demons, witches and devils are exhibited at the Kunsthal. ‘For example, we have a print by Leendert Jordaan in which he portrayed himself as a devil with a cigar between his fingers. It is uncertain whether it’s an anti-smoking or a smoking advertisement. At the top of the print are the words ‘One gives their heart and soul for X... cigars’. The devil does appear to be quite content with his half-smoked cigar. ‘He gives a rather sneaky glance, it’s perfect.’
The charcoal drawing Death and the Girl by Rie Cramer is also striking. ‘At the start of the 20th century, she drew cute book illustrations with flowers and girls in pretty dresses. It was all rather sweet. However, we have two of her drawings that are actually very dark. It’s interesting to see that contrast.’
The oldest print in the exhibition is The Witches by Hans Baldung Grien from 1510. ‘Together with Albrecht Dürer, he is one of the founders of the traditional image of witches that we still have today. However, witches were depicted riding their broomsticks backwards back then: the world upside down. They also rode goats backwards, as can be seen in this print. There were still witch hunts in those days. For us, it’s the stuff of fairy tales, but for contemporaries it was a part of everyday life, alarmingly enough. There were even handbooks on witch hunting, such as the illustrated Malleus Maleficarum, or The Witches’ Hammer.’
Very poignant are the three Apocalypse ink drawings by Theo Forrer, full of twisted and mutilated bodies. ‘Forrer died recently. During the Second World War, he was forced by the Japanese to work on the infamous Burma Railway. The illustration reflects the dark things he experienced there. It’s like looking into someone’s soul.’
Hello Darkness, my old Friend
Kunsthal, Rotterdam
15 June to 22 September. €18 (€10 for students up to 26 years old)