Folkert de Jong
Amabilis insania. The Pleasing Delusion
Middelheim Museum, Antwerp, BE
26 Oct 2013 – 6 Apr 2014
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Folkert de Jong became famous in the last decade for the masterful sculptures that can be found in exclusive collections around the world. Middelheim Museum may also remember him. In 2006, when he was still relatively unknown, he took part in the Long Live Sculpture! (Lang Leve Beeldhouwkunst!) group exhibition. He was back a year later for a residency. And now, the open-air museum is offering de Jong a solo project, for which he is creating a display with new bronze figures.
Folkert de Jong’s world is populated with circus artists, soldiers, art collectors, Indian gods, mountain climbers, little dancers, apes, heads of state, sunbathing girls, happy-go-luckies and skeletons. The figurative installations devised by de Jong, which are embedded in the (often mysterious) history or meaning of a location, combine an ironic reference to the Old Masters with a substantial amount of the present. He combines historic figures or situations with a contemporary visual language or objects. Fiercely beautiful figures have ambiguous relationships with each other and with their environment. The dark side of human nature is the driving force behind this Dutch artist’s work. De Jong is fascinated with the opposition between pomp and circumstance on the one hand and the obscene reverse side of the display of power.
With regard to materials, Folkert de Jong usually prefers mass-produced media that are rarely found in art, such as polystyrene or composite foam. They are not meant to last forever, nor are they environmentally friendly. It is precisely these unsettling properties that interest the artist. The worthless material owes its appeal to the precise execution of the work and the concise use of colour.
For his exhibition at the Middelheim Museum, de Jong has chosen to create a display of eleven new bronze sculptures, both figures and still lifes, that will be visible in and around the Het Huis (The House) pavilion. At first glance, the display may look very traditional. A closer look reveals the disruptive impact on the harmonious statue park. The artist relates timelessness to decay, art history to its relevance, freedom to compulsion.