Folkert de Jong NL, 1972
"The Dance”, 2007
Mousse de polyuréthane, pigment, mousse Austrotherm, contreplaqué.
Polyurethane foam, Pigment, Austrotherm foam, Plywood.
Polyurethane foam, Pigment, Austrotherm foam, Plywood.
Dimensions variables
Character :
185 x 186 x 56 cm
72 7/8 x 73 1/4 x 22 inches
Character :
185 x 186 x 56 cm
72 7/8 x 73 1/4 x 22 inches
FDJ029
Copyright The Artist
'The Dance' consists of 5 figures : - Balthasar Gerards (the assassin of William of Orange) - Spinoza (as depicted on the 1,000-guilder banknote) - Jan Pieterszoon Coen - Johan...
"The Dance" consists of 5 figures :
- Balthasar Gerards (the assassin of William of
Orange)
- Spinoza (as depicted on the 1,000-guilder banknote)
- Jan Pieterszoon Coen
- Johan van Oldenbarnevelt
- Player (self-portrait of Folkert de Jong as a lute player).
Thematically, de Jong’s meticulously weathered artworks often deal with unfair deals, profiteering, and the ghosts of colonialism and imperialism. The figures in The Dance happen to be cast from a single mold, based on a composition featuring a 16th- or 17th-century merchant—an amalgam of historical figures such as Pedro de Alvarado, Peter Minuit, and Hernán Cortés—and Rembrandt’s The Night Watch.
The installation evokes the monument in New York’s Battery Park commemorating the Dutch purchase of Manhattan in exchange for beads and mirrors; here, as the artist explains, "the clones trade with themselves, with their own kind, rob one another, and dance toward their fate: self-destruction." The characters’ grand, nightmarish song and dance carries a deadly tone, featuring a symbolic black coating resembling dripping tar.
- Balthasar Gerards (the assassin of William of
Orange)
- Spinoza (as depicted on the 1,000-guilder banknote)
- Jan Pieterszoon Coen
- Johan van Oldenbarnevelt
- Player (self-portrait of Folkert de Jong as a lute player).
Thematically, de Jong’s meticulously weathered artworks often deal with unfair deals, profiteering, and the ghosts of colonialism and imperialism. The figures in The Dance happen to be cast from a single mold, based on a composition featuring a 16th- or 17th-century merchant—an amalgam of historical figures such as Pedro de Alvarado, Peter Minuit, and Hernán Cortés—and Rembrandt’s The Night Watch.
The installation evokes the monument in New York’s Battery Park commemorating the Dutch purchase of Manhattan in exchange for beads and mirrors; here, as the artist explains, "the clones trade with themselves, with their own kind, rob one another, and dance toward their fate: self-destruction." The characters’ grand, nightmarish song and dance carries a deadly tone, featuring a symbolic black coating resembling dripping tar.