Gijs G. Donker

Gijs Donker (1964) was one of the enfants terribles of Dutch painting in the 1980s. Together with his brothers Aad and Justus, Peter Klashorst, Jurriaan van Hall, Bart Domburg, and Ernst Voss, they founded the artists’ collective After Nature. This collective rebelled against the prevailing trend of Abstract Expressionism and caused a sensation in the 1980s and 1990s with an innovative figurative painting style. The group’s influence was enormous, and it is credited with bringing about a return to realism in painting. When the group disbanded in 1992, Gijs Donker, together with his brothers Aad and Justus, continued to hold group exhibitions for some time, primarily in the United States. After the death of his brother Aad in 1998, Gijs continued on his own, focusing primarily on developing his expressionist painting style.