Mature artists who trained at least twenty years ago, and who work in any medium, are invited to apply to join a small artist group to meet at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and to participate in an exhibition in response to their upcoming ‘Young Rembrandt’ exhibition which runs from 27th February to 7th June.

The group will meet to join one of the staff preview tours of the exhibition, which,“explores the early years of the career of the most famous of all Dutch artists, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669). Beginning with his earliest known paintings, prints and drawings made in the mid-1620s, and ending at the moment he rockets to stardom in Amsterdam in the mid-1630s, this exhibition charts an astonishing transformation.”

Having viewed the works made by Rembrandt in the first ten years of his working life, the group will meet to respond to it as artists and to identify themes in it that may be as relevant to the maturing of an artist now as then : the journey an artist makes from hesitancy to confidence; the importance or not of innate skill or perceived talent, the influence of others, what success as an artist may mean, as well as observing differences culturally or due to the passage of time.

Over four, two hour meetings held between March and June, the group will, through conversation and an informal sharing of work, review works we made in the first ten years of our own careers. We will reflect together on those early stages, on how we accessed our training, how we found our subjects and defined our ambitions as young artists and on how feel we met them, or revised them, as we developed our practice and integrated it with other parts of our lives, family, employment etc

The group will be encouraged to make a visual response to the themes of Young Rembrandt and an exhibition in Oxford with an accompanying small publication is planned.

The group will be led by Clare Carswell from CouCou Curation. The project is supported by the Oxford-Leiden Link with The Ashmolean Museum.

No fee is asked at this stage and some funds will be available to contribute to costs.

To express your interest in joining the group please contact curator Clare Carswell for an informal chat by 20th February.