Monuments of Regents

Monument der Regentessen
Amsterdam Museum at the Hermitage Amsterdam
20 November 2020 – 2 January 2022
Artist intervention

---

Since 2014, the Amsterdam Museum and the Rijksmuseum have co-presented Group Portraits of the 17th Century at the Hermitage Amsterdam—the world’s most extensive collection of Dutch Golden Age civic portraits. Housed in a grand hall, these monumental works of Amsterdam’s regents and militia companies anchor a deeper exploration of 17th-century urban life in the Netherlands.

In 2019, artist Jörgen Tjon A Fong became the first contemporary creator to reinterpret this legacy through a site-specific intervention. Building on this precedent, the museum commissioned Natasja Kensmil to contribute a second modern perspective, embedding her works within the permanent exhibition.

Kensmil’s five paintings—including the nine-panel Monument of Regents—dialogue directly with the historical portraits. Her bold, textured brushwork reimagines the archetypes of power, while compositions like Selva Amazone (2020) and White Elephant (2019) expose the colonial violence underpinning Dutch prosperity. A ship at sea and a vanishing rainforest become visual metaphors for exploitation, past and present.

As curator Imara Limon observes, Kensmil’s works “dissolve the myth of benign heritage,” forcing viewers to confront how 17th-century wealth—depicted in stately group portraits—was extracted through oppression. Acquired with support from the Mondriaan Fund, her Monument of Regents now permanently challenges the exhibition’s narrative, proving that history’s shadows still shape our world.

---

---