Sandro Ricaldone
JACQUELINE DE JONG
The Ultimate Kiss
Mercatorfonds, 2021
“The Ultimate Kiss” is the most comprehensive international publication dedicated to the art of Jacqueline de Jong (The Netherlands, 1939).
Actively involved in the European avant-garde networks of the 1960s, and well-known as a former member of the Situationist International and publisher of The Situationist Times, De Jong has always maintained a dedicated studio practice at the core of her manifold activities for over six decades.
This book presents the full scope of De Jong’s artistic production: from the artist’s earliest expressionist abstractions to her recent painterly reflections on migration and the refugee crisis; from her graphic and print work to her experiments with potatoes as sculptural material. The Ultimate Kiss offers a thorough re-evaluation of an artistic oeuvre that has long remained under the radar and aims to posit De Jong as one of the most resourceful artists of our time.
The artistic, cultural and intellectual importance of De Jong’s art is traced in five essays and a conversation with the artist. Devrim Bayar discusses the artist’s formative years amidst the dynamic developments of the post-war European avant-garde, with a focus on the post-Cobra and post-Surrealist Belgian context. Juliette Desorgues situates the oeuvre of the artist within the space of theatricality, performativity and ‘the stage’.
In an interview with Alison Gingeras, the artist discusses her practice in relation to current political and cultural developments. De Jong’s playfully provocative embrace of violence and sexuality is the subject of an essay by Xander Karskens, while Annabelle Ténèze takes the notion of the rebound to look at the restless multidirectionality that lies at the heart of De Jong’s artisthood. In her personal account of three encounters with the artist, Niña Weijers portrays De Jong and her daily working practice.
