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Say hello to the inimitable Miffy
On the way to the exhibition at Erasmus Huis, my 5-year-old daughter comes across the creased invitation while rifling through my handbag
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On the way to the exhibition at Erasmus Huis, my 5-year-old daughter comes across the creased invitation while rifling through my handbag. "What's that Mummy?" she says, a smile creeping across her face. Rounded ears, two spots for eyes, a cross for a mouth. "Oh, it's Miffy!"
"We always try to attract children. They are the ones who really understand Miffy," said Bonny van Sighem from the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, the Netherlands, at the opening of the Miffy exhibition on Thursday evening.
The exhibition is part of the program "The Dutch Present Design in Jakarta" and the works are part of the Centraal's collection.
Van Sighem said the works were representative of the Centraal collection. There are original book designs and sketches, book covers and posters for the Black Bear series of pocket books, as well as displays that allow insight into the working process of Miffy creator Dick Bruna, who was born back in 1927.
"They (the displays) show the depth and the effort in how Dick Bruna works; they show how he cuts out the blocks of color for the clothes and the backgrounds, painstakingly.
"It is understandable that he would do this in the 50s. But, even today, he doesn't use computers," van Sighem said.
There is evidence of the influence of Mattise, Mondrian, Picasso, Leger in Bruna's techniques and style.
Miffy gives children an opening into art.
In drawing Miffy, Bruna uses very few lines and a limited number of colors, most often warm red and yellow, dark blue and green.
Who is Miffy? Miffy is a child rabbit and children relate to the finding of comfort in the primary colors and the simplicity of expression. This rampant, runaway, universal appeal comes despite her age. Yes, for Miffy is more than 50 years old.
And the primary-colored square Miffy books have been published worldwide in over 40 languages.
Van Sighem said the books were not as well known in Indonesia as the Miffy merchandise. Her image can be found on everything from pencil cases to sarongs. "It is a shame that the books do not come first and then the merchandise," Van Sighem said, "It ought to be the other way around." Well, we've heard that story before in many contexts, have we not?
At the opening of the exhibition adults licked ice-creams and adults crowded all around the child's table where there were crayons and pencils for children -- and adults -- to participate in that lasting pleasure of eternal childhood, coloring in. Coloring what? Of course, coloring in Miffy masks and Miffy ears.
This week, forget the mall. Really, you should go and spend an hour or two hours cosying up with a rabbit, coloring in, pleasuring, along with all the (other) children. What with a rabbit?
A rabbit! Oh, it's Miffy!
"Miffy"
April 4-May 22
Erasmus Huis
Jl. Rasuna Said, Kuningan
Phone: 5241069
Opening hours: Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.;
Saturday 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
