Culinary art in Janssen's work is the subject of a special exhibition that the museum is showing for the first time this spring. In his works, Horst Janssen often dealt with everyday objects from his surroundings, including food, kitchen utensils and works in gastronomic contexts. In doing so, he breaks with the usual conventions of still lifes by changing the proportions, re-contextualising objects or depicting food in the process of spoiling. 

The exhibition will be structured like the course of a typical day in the life of Horst Janssen, from his first coffee in his bathrobe to his infamous apple pancakes at lunchtime and a convivial glass of wine at his favourite Italian restaurant. On display are classic masterpieces by the North German artist, such as watercolours, drawings and etchings, as well as his everyday art, which he left behind on letters, shopping lists, promissory notes, wrapping paper from wine bottles, beer mats, aprons and napkins. In addition, there are biographical objects and photographs from Janssen's everyday life, allowing visitors to get to know the artist in a very private way.

The Horst Janssen Museum juxtaposes two of the outstanding German draughtsmen of the second half of the 20th century: Horst Janssen (1929-1995) and Werner Tübke (1929-2004). Two artists of the same vintage, two loners who developed their idiosyncratic work in different parts of Germany after 1945: Janssen in the liberal-democratic system of the Federal Republic and Tübke in the dictatorial regime of the GDR.

Despite the differences between their works, there are surprising similarities, affinities and direct encounters that the exhibition aims to present. The focus is on three themes in particular: 1. their diverse role and self-portraits, 2. their commitment to the art-historical pictorial tradition and use of the old masterly pictorial language for statements about their own time, and 3. the dominance of violence, terror and death in their pictorial inventions. The exhibition aims to contribute to objectifying the long-standing, heated debate about the quality, acceptance and visibility of East German art in the West and to familiarise visitors to the Horst Janssen Museum with art from the GDR to a greater extent than before.

Christoph Niemann (*1970) works internationally as an illustrator and graphic designer, has published various books and regularly draws covers for ‘The New Yorker’, ‘National Geographic’ and ‘ZEIT Magazin’. In 2017, he was portrayed in an episode of the Netflix series ‘Abstract: The Art of Design’. On his Instagram channel @abstractsunday, 1.1 million people follow his weekly illustrations and animations.

The exhibition on two levels of the Horst Janssen Museum is intended to provide an overview of his work. This includes almost iconic drawings, poetic watercolours, astonishing photographic and film collages, which mostly play humorously with our perception, as well as optical spatial alienations and many offers to get creative yourself.