Contemporary Realism

Prominent within this collection is the work of the Northern Figuratives, including Matthijs Röling (1943), Wout Muller (1946-2000), Henk Helmantel (1945) and Clary Mastenbroek (1947). From the end of the 1960s they rejected the idea that only abstract work is ‘good art’. At the Minerva Academy in Groningen, where Röling and Muller taught, revaluation of the craft was central. There were classes in anatomy, form study and colour theory. Many of their students stuck to what they learnt in their student days. 

Thus, Minerva Academy became a breeding ground for several generations of figurative artists, including Sam Drukker (1957) and Pieter Pander (1962). Their work can be found in the museum collection. But other Dutch realist artists are also represented here, such as Atousa Bandeh Giasabadi (1968), Tamara Muller (1975), Carolein Smit (1960), Stijn Rietman (1979) and Simon Schrikker (1973). 

Since 2009, the Drents Museum has also shown and collected work by artists from the Leipziger Schule, a group of modern painters from the German city of Leipzig. Their students later formed the Neue Leipziger Schule. You will find work by Rosa Loy (1958), Matthias Weischer (1973), Tilo Baumgärtel (1972) and Mirjam Völker (1977), among others.

Almost all of these artists studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. At this academy, as at the Groningen Academy Minerva, a lot of attention was paid to craft.

In the GDR period, which lasted from 1949 to 1990, realism was a popular art form in Germany. This also applied to the Leipzig Academy and coloured the formation of these generations of artists.

The Drents Museum is increasingly focusing on figurative art from beyond European borders. The recent acquisition of work by South African artist Deborah Poynton (1970) is a good example of this. 

The Drents Museum regularly organises exhibitions on contemporary realism. One of the highlights was Minerva meets Leipzig (2009). A first in the Netherlands, this gave an overview of three generations of Leipzig artists. Several solo exhibitions by artists from the Neue Leipziger Schule followed, such as Rosa Loy – Bilder Bergen (2017-2018), Kristina Schuldt – Brutal Paradise (2021-2022), Neo Rauch – Wegzehr (2022-2023) and Tilo Baumgärtel – Das selbe Wasser (2023-2024).

Another highlight was the exhibition The American Dream (2017-2018), about American realism from the period 1945-2017. Artworks by Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Alice Neel (1900-1984) and Andy Warhol (1928-1987) were on display at the Drents Museum and Kunsthalle Emden in Germany. There were also major retrospectives by Henk Helmantel (2020-2021) and Antonio López (2024), among others.