Museum Figurative Art The Outside Place

A contemporary figurative art museum: this is certainly the last thing one would expect in a small village like Eelde, in Drenthe. De Buitenplaats occupies a garden and two buildings, an old one and a new one. The garden is a creation of the landscape architect from Utrecht, Copijn; it starts from the old section, evolves into a space dedicated to modern sculpture, and climbs onto the roof of the new museum. The Nijsinghhuis, a 17th-century house, is inhabited by the couple Van Groeningen-Hazenberg, the initiators of the museum.
In the garden, marked paths lead to the cafeteria, where the smell of all sorts of delicacies wafts up to your nose. The museum itself is a creation of architects Alberts and Van Huut: a product of the 1980s, somewhat askew, but in harmony with the natural environment. In accordance with the guiding principle, everything here is under the sign of figurative art. "The term figurative should be understood in a broad sense; it encompasses a multitude of trends, from expressionism to impressionism, from abstract to pure realism, from tangible forms to immaterial touches," wrote Jos van Groeningen in the catalog published during the inaugural exhibition at the end of 1996.
De Buitenplaats is the second museum, after the one in Assen, to have received official recognition.

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