JACQUELINE DE JONG

Forced to flee Holland during the war, de Jong’s early life was marked by social upheaval. She became involved with radical artists and thinkers of the 1960s, most notably with the Situationist International (SI) and Gruppe SPUR. When de Jong was excluded from the SI, along with the other visual artists, she founded The Situationist Times. Hailed as one of the most important and experimental journals of its time, the publication offered opportunity for collaboration between writers, poets and visual artists. As editor and publisher, she produced six issues between 1962 and 1967. In 1968 she marched with the students in Paris, printing artist posters in support of the movement.

De Jong’s painting practice is diverse: declining to progress in a linear fashion, she often doubled back and revisited formal and conceptual concerns. Early works from the 1960s include expressive abstraction, the violent and humorous Accidental Paintings and Suicidal Paintings series, and the witty and erotic Private Lives of the Cosmonauts. Themes of sexual desire, war and violence continue throughout, with the Série Noire of 1980s, the Paysages Dramatiques and paintings of the 1990s that address conflict more explicitly. During the 2010s, de Jong took inspiration from the monstrous shapes of overgrown potatoes to explore the humorous and grotesque side of nature whilst experimenting with new materials and photographic printing. Her most recent work returned to oil painting and a re-examination of early themes that have new resonance in the present day.

In September 2025 Kunstmuseum St. Gallen will present Disobedience, a solo retrospective exhibition of de Jong’s work. Recent solo museum exhibitions include Vicious Circles, the first US retrospective of de Jong’s work at the NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale, FL __(2024-5); The Ultimate Kiss, WIELS, Brussels (2021), touring to MOSTYN, Wales (2021-22) and Kunstmuseum Ravensburg, Germany (2022); Pinball Wizard: The Work and Life of Jacqueline de Jong, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2019); Jacqueline de Jong, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse (2018-19); Jacqueline de Jong & The Situationist Times, Malmö Konsthall (2018-19); and Jacqueline de Jong: Undercover in de kunst, Cobra Museum for Contemporary Art, Amstelveen (2003). Current and recent group exhibitions include Centre Pompidou, Paris (2024); Rijksmusem, Amsterdam (2024); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2022-23); Cobra Museum for Contemporary Art, Amstelveen (2023); BPS22 Musée d’art de la Province de Hainaut, Charleroi (2023); Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (2022 and 2017); The Warehouse, Dallas (2021); Lenbachhaus, Munich (2020); Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem (2018); and Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (2018).

In May 2023, de Jong was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2019 the AWARE Prize for Women Artists presented her with the Outstanding Merit Award in recognition of her exceptional career. That same year, These are Situationist Times! (Torpedo Press, Oslo), an in-depth history of the publication, was launched at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and MoMA PS1, New York, NY. Her archive, Jacqueline de Jong Papers, was acquired in 2011 by the Beinecke Library of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

Centre Pompidou, Paris, and SFMOMA, CA, both acquired major 1960’s works earlier this year. Other collections include Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Le Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap), Paris; Musée les Abattoirs, Toulouse; Amsterdam Museum; Cobra Museum for Modern Art, Amstelveen; Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; Museum Arnhem; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Museum Jorn, Silkeborg; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo; MONA, Tasmania; Elie Khouri Art Foundation, Dubai; Kunstmuseum Göteborg; Lenbachhaus, Munich; Rachofsky Collection, Dallas, TX; and Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.

Gabrielle Leung | Ocula | 2021