Welcome

"Het kasteel van Batavia" from the Rijksmuseum Collection, Amsterdam. Image source: Rijksmuseum.nl

Welcome to a visual journey through Indonesia's commercial art evolution. This collection explores how everyday product labels for coffee, cigars, and tea capture Indonesia's transformation from a Dutch colony to an independent nation. These seemingly ordinary commercial artifacts tell an extraordinary story of changing power dynamics, cultural identity, and visual representation. From Van Nelle Factory's colonial-era trademarks to contemporary Indonesian designs, each item reveals how commercial imagery reflected and shaped historical narratives. This collection combines historical trade labels from Dutch archives with Grafis Nusantara's curated Indonesian ephemera, providing a unique window into how visual culture evolved during periods of colonial rule, the struggle for independence, and the formation of national identity.