(RepublicanJournal.org) – Artists have a way of invoking emotions with their pieces. Some have the fortune of making a career out of their passion. One woman who had a successful career that spanned six decades recently passed away.
On Saturday, June 29, Jacqueline de Jong, an influential artist who explored many mediums, passed away in Amsterdam at the age of 85 following a short illness. A statement from Ortuzar Projects, her gallery in New York, noted that “she was a constant source of good humor and cutting brilliance.”
De Jong was most noted for her paintings, which appeared on French pulp fiction novel covers and billboards. They depicted everything from current conflicts to snooker players, a game similar to pool, but with different rules.
The Dutch artist was born in 1939 to Jewish industrialists. In her youth, she fled with her parents to Switzerland, after having spent a brief time in French custody during the war where her family was set to be deported to the Drancy detainment camp. De Jong initially planned to be an actress, going so far as to study drama and theater, before she met a Dutch painter, Asger Jorn, and took a lifelong detour to art. She was part of Jorn’s Cobra group but after their love affair went wrong and she was expelled, de Jong founded the Situationist Times, a publication for artists.
Her works have gained notoriety over the years, with her multipart paintings drawing attention in galleries around the world. Where she was once only known locally in Amsterdam, she has since expanded to Brussels, France, and the United States, where some of her works are on display in Florida.
In 2009, she and her husband, Thomas Weyland, founded The Weyland de Jong Foundation to support artists over 50. In 2019, she received a French award, the Outstanding Merit Award Prize, for her long, illustrious career.
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