By Lucy Stein
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Rembrandt van Rhijn, The Abduction of Proserpina, c.1631, oil on wood, 83 x 78 cm, from the collection of the Staatliche Museen, Berlin. Photograph: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images
In a new series, frieze invites artists to present a series of images that are important to them
Rembrandt van Rhijn, The Abduction of Proserpina, c.1631
When I moved to Berlin in 2007 I was sick of Rembrandt, having spent the past three years in Amsterdam, but somehow, come every trip to Gemäldegalerie, I would get stuck in front of this painting, gawping at it and experiencing viscerally the thresholds between violence and bliss, repulsion and desire, light and dark, male and female, good and evil. Rembrandt seems to urgently convey what two centuries later Nietzsche would tell us about the pressing need to go beyond such limiting binaries: that while the chthonic abyss might be terrifying, it is also necessary and unavoidable.
I have been going into the fogous in Cornwall lately, ancient underground structures that are like granite-clad birth canals leading to serene deprivation chambers, but Rembrandt is not asking us to literally slope back to the anti-diluvial burrow. When you enter the myth of Persephone, it reveals itself to be a story about embracing that which makes us fearful – the unknown – and staying alert to the deeper readings of all situations. Though exhausting, in the contemporary arena it might be the only way to counter the nonchalant veneer of neoliberal hegemony and the myriad of hardline attitudes that pop up in the cracks.
The final part of Lucy Stein’s ‘Portfolio’ will be available tomorrow.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
