General
Alderman ai Nieke Jansen opened the exhibition ‘Helmandel in America – From Cows to Art’ from the Ritsema Collection on Saturday 11 June 2022. The family was there to explain its artistic debt. Earlier in the day, they made a promotional documentary.
The Ritzema Collection consists of various masterpieces by Henk Helmandel. Fred and Joke (Yoga) Ritsema immigrated to America three decades ago, but their roots are in the same Groningen clay as painter Henk Helmandel. The Icon Museum is the first to display the collection, all belonging to the Ritsema family.
Still lifes and church interiors of Helmand can be admired. The Icon Museum invites you to experience the creation of Helmandel, the light in his painted glass and the silence of the old churches in this exhibition showing an overview of more than twenty paintings painted between 1973 and 2021. Currently the counter is 28.
Three American-born Ritsema children accompanied the trip to the Netherlands. Robin attended the shoot a day before the shoot. Read more about Fred Ritzema’s move from cows to art this week in De Brug.
