Artists:		60 realists
Techniques:		various
Date of exhibition:		August 16 - October 12, 2003

From Saturday, August 16, till Monday, October 12, the Independent Realist Exhibition (IRE) will be held for the sixth time. Participating are sixty well-known artists, who all work in a realistic or figurative manner. Some 300 works of art will be exhibited. This important annual exhibition gives a fine cross section of what is happening in the field of figurative art in the Netherlands. This sixth edition will be marked by the publication of the 6th volume in the series Realisten (Realists). Today's exhibitions generally seem to centre more around form than content. In the race to gain the attention of the public and the media, the strangest concepts are invented to make every new exhibition seem even more fresh and fruity than the previous one. Art lends itself perfectly for this, as there is no-one who can really tell what art is about or supposed to be. This blind spot is just the thing exhibition-makers (in fact: great artists themselves) exploit to make us believe we are experiencing something we have never seen before. You know: a repeating video projected on the museum-wall, audio-art dripping from the museum-ceiling, uncouth things lying around on the museum-floor, and free-dancing in the so-called 'museumnight'. Still, it is nothing more than old wine in new bottles. Plonk. With a sour aftertaste. Not for keeping. Museum Møhlmann, a private initiative of the painter Rob Møhlmann and his wife Laura, does not go for this kind of fastfood circuit, in which the same piece of junkfood is sold every other week under a new exotic name. Here art is just what it is: representational art. Art hanging on the wall or standing firmly on a pedestal. Recognizable images. Reality as starting-point. The one who dares to call this "old-fashione" or "not renewing" gets lectured by Rob Møhlmann: "Art itself does not know any progress at all; the only things that do change is personal vision and the character of the era. Just hang a still live from this exhibition between the old masters in the Rijksmuseum; the differences will be evident. The same for the nudes, the landscapes and so on. But are they better? Or worse? No, they are different and that is exactly the thing that makes realistic and figurative art of all times so exciting. The one thing old and contemporary art do have in common is talent and craftsmanship. If one of these qualities is lacking, the works will be therapeutic, amateurish, modern born out of impotence, or whatever, but certainly not art." The visitors of this huge exhibition of realists will be amazed by the different approaches of the same subjects and by the different styles. Some artists manage to paint a convincing image with rough brushstrokes, while others suggest an almost tangible world with very fine brushes. No photograph can beat that. Møhlmann is often asked: "But why don't you just make a photograph?" The answer is as simple as it is decisive: "If I would have done that, you wouldn't be standing here...". Museum Møhlmann strongly strives for quality. Of course, everyone has his own taste and preferences, but quality is the common denominator at the IRE's. Six years ago, this annual exhibition had its origin by sheer accident, but today it has acquired a certain fame in the landscape of Dutch art, and even from abroad a finger is held on the throbbing pulse of the museum. Thanks to the IRE there is a close collaboration with "big guys" like the Panorama Museum in Bad Frankenhausen (Germany). From the very first year the IRE has been accompanied by a new publication in the series of the Realistenreeks. In each book one finds the biographic data of all participating artists, as well as full-colour reproductions of three works of each artist. With the publication of part 6 a very interesting time-documentary is coming into being, of which the value will only increase as time passes.

Magda Francot | zoom | Harry Meerveld | zoom | Jannes Kleiker | zoom | Monica Jonkergouw | zoom | René Jansen | zoom | Rob Møhlmann | zoom | Romee Kanis | zoom | Ruud Verkerk | zoom |

Participating artists