Jacqueline de Jong: Disobedience

The first retrospective in Switzerland of the work of Dutch artist Jacqueline de Jong.

“We need to be reminded to be disobedient.” —Jacqueline de Jong in 2017

The first retrospective in Switzerland of the work of the Dutch artist Jacqueline de Jong (born in Hengelo, the Netherlands, in 1939; died in Amsterdam in 2024) brings together an oeuvre of painting, sculpture, and graphic art produced in dialogue with some of the most important post-war artistic movements in Europe over a period of more than six decades—including CoBrA, Pop Art, New Figuration and Postmodernism.

Aged 21, De Jong became involved in the revolutionary, radical avant-garde movement the Situationist International, whose members aimed to break free from the spectacle of capitalism and create adventurous, self-directed encounters with the world. Throughout her career, De Jong stayed true to this spirit. Her shapeshifting and oftentimes politically engaged work was playful, erotic, funny, dark, and—above all—always radically contemporary. Unafraid and open, she sought to uncover what was hidden below the surfaces of the images that came at her in ever-increasing number and at ever-increasing speed with the rise of TV, the internet, and social media. Her art was dedicated to revealing the forces that lay beneath—eroticism, violence, fear, agony, and lust—and, with a sense of play and pleasure, reinterpreting them so that a radical and more honest version of humanity might emerge.

The comprehensive exhibition spans the artist’s entire career, from the early 1960s until 2024. The exhibition follows a thematic structure and is divided into six sections: “Chaos”, “Popular Culture”, “The Everyday”, “Play”, “Politics” and “Editor.” In the last room, an illustrated timeline with archival photographs will provide orientation and an overview of De Jong’s life and work.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a comprehensive bilingual catalogue that echoes the conceptual structure of the exhibition and deepens its themes through in-depth analyses of selected artworks. The richly illustrated publication will be released by JRP|Editions. Designed by Sabo Day it features new essays by Melanie Bühler (Curator Contemporary Art Stedelijk Museum Amsterda), Karen Kurczynski (Professor of History of Art and Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Emily LaBarge (writer and critic), Tiana Reid (Assistant Professor of English at York University), and Paul Bernard (Director of Kunsthaus Biel). A conversation between McKenzie Wark (writer and scholar) and Jacqueline de Jong work will also be included in the publication.

The work of the late Jacqueline de Jong has never been shown in a museum solo exhibition in Switzerland; the retrospective at the Kunstmuseum St.Gallen is the first major museum show of the artist in the country. This is surprising, as Jacqueline de Jong had a strong connection to Switzerland. Her mother, Alice de Jong-Weil, was Swiss. In 1942, after the Netherlands was occupied by the Nazis, the Jewish De Jong family split up: Alice fled to Switzerland with little Jacqueline, where they lived in Zürich, while her father went into hiding in Amsterdam. When Jacqueline and her mother returned to Hengelo in 1947, De Jong had to re-learn Dutch. Her parents would later move to Ascona, on the shore of Lake Maggiore. In the 1960s, when De Jong was living in Paris, she would visit them there in the summer. She had a studio there and room to paint and sculpt. De Jong spoke fluent Swiss German, and her work is part of several Swiss collections.

Curated by Melanie Bühler, Curator of Contemporary Art at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 

The publication Jacqueline de Jong: Disobedience published by JRP|Editions will be released on September 26, 2025.