29 june 2023, Pienk de Gaay Fortman
Artist Jacqueline de Jong – idiosyncratic style and rebellious themes
Dürst Britt & Mayhew shows in ‘Border...and other lines’ a solo exhibition by Jacqueline de Jong featuring hyper-relevant work made between February 2022 and May 2023. In her 60-plus years of artistry, De Jong experiments with different materials, formats and styles. With painting and social engagement as her foundations. De Jong: "Political events are more often the direct trigger for my work. The interplay of topicality, eroticism and irony; these are things that keep reappearing."
Artist Jacqueline de Jong is always alert to what is going on in the world. In the 1960s, the artist joined the artistic-political movement Situationists International (SI), which criticised capitalism. Soon after, De Jong published The Situationist Times. Not only in the role of editor and publisher, but also by designing and printing artist posters and participating in the student protests in 1968 Paris. In these predominantly male-dominated circles, De Jong fought herself free as an artist and activist.
Primarily paintings, De Jong also creates drawings, sculptures, prints, jewellery and artist books. Early works from the 1960s include expressive abstractionism, the violent and humorous series Accidental Paintings and Suicidal Paintings, and the witty and erotic Private Lives of the Cosmonauts. Themes of sexual desire, war and violence continue to recur throughout, with the Série Noire and Paysages Dramatiques of the 1980s, as well as paintings from the 1990s and 10s that deal more explicitly with war. In the previous decade, De Jong also drew inspiration from the monstrous shapes of overgrown potatoes to explore the humorous and grotesque side of nature as the artist experimented with new materials and photographic prints.
Her most recent work, now on show at Dürst Britt & Mayhew, are large-scale oil paintings depicted in contrasting, bright colours. Again gripped by world news, De Jong visualises two catastrophic events: the refugee crisis and the war in Ukraine. In Disasters (2023), these come together. The lower part of the canvas depicts boat refugees, waving and reaching with their arms in an attempt to reach the mainland. The boat is surrounded by floating objects and dead bodies. The mainland covers the upper part of the painting, with two soldiers in non-combat mode, while to its left a giant tank aims its sights at the boat. It cannot be a coincidence that De Jong created a composition in shades of yellow and blue as a reference to the Ukrainian flag. A violent scene you cannot ignore as a viewer. Ironically, the refugees are on their way to free Europe while a war is raging in Ukraine. In Europe, too, freedom is not self-evident and democratic values are under pressure.
Jacqueline de Jong, Disasters, 2023, Dürst Britt & Mayhew
The series confronts, chafes and provokes thought. De Jong is an artist and rebel: "I made a story - not my story, but their story through me." Her individuality and courage to make a statement through her artistic skills can be admired. In May 2023, De Jong received the prestigious French title of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her meaningful contributions to the arts.
