Eelde

It is indeed the last thing you would expect in a Drenthe village like Eelde: a museum for contemporary figurative art. De Buitenplaats consists of a museum garden, an old building, and a new building. The garden was designed by the Utrecht garden and landscape architect Copijn, starting at the old section and smoothly transitioning into a modern sculpture garden, even extending to the roof of the new museum.
In the 17th-century Nijsingh house resides the couple Van Groeningen-Hazenberg, the initiators of De Buitenplaats. The actual museum is designed by the Dutch 'living forms' architects Alberts and Van Huut, and as such is a product of the architecture of the 1990s: a bit uneven but harmoniously fitting into its natural surroundings. In the museum, everything is, in accordance with the declaration of principles, centered around figurative art. "Figurative is a broad concept in which a multitude of directions can be distinguished, from expressionism to impressionism, from abstracting to purely realistic, from tangible form to detached touch," says Jos van Groeningen, quoting himself from the catalog that accompanied the opening exhibition in late 1996.
De Buitenplaats is the second museum in Drenthe, after Assen, to receive official recognition.

Lannoo