Featured in the Pre-Raphaelite Society Review, Summer 2024 issue is my research into a photograph of Jane Morris by Herbert Watkins I rediscovered in the St Bride Library. Three different versions are published together for the first time, from the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the William Morris Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.
Read the full article here. Or visit the Pre-Raphaelite Society for your own back issue.
A review of the solo exhibition ‘Looking for Janey’ at Gallery Pulchri written for the Pre-Raphaelite Society Review, Spring 2024 issue.
Interview with Walter van Teeffelen for the series ‘World Fine art Professionals and their Key-Pieces’ (June 2024).
Published in Dutch as ‘Margje Bijl in de ban van Jane Morris’ (April 2024).
It leads to a more principled question that plays a role in more of Margje’s works: “That mattress is typical of everything that inspires me. The human traces, the unintentional memories of using something. I approach Jane this way too. Through all traces, I try to reconstruct her history and personality. What kind of woman is behind the image? Why has she become an icon?”
A preview of the upcoming solo exhibition ‘Looking for Janey’ written for Pulchri magazine, December 2023.
This article is conceived as a dialogue between curator Helena Cox and the contemporary Dutch artist Margje Bijl, allowing a behind-the-scenes view of the thought process informing a unique exhibition they have been working on since December 2019. Written for the special issue of the Pre-Raphaelite Society Review ‘Pre-Raphaelite Women’ edited by Dr Serena Trowbridge, Autumn 2022.
The assemblage ‘Love is Not Enough’ is included in the book ‘Anthotype Emulsions, Volume I, The collective research from photographers on World Anthotype Day 2022’ by Malin Fabbri.
An introduction of the commissioned exhibition ‘Jane Morris Museum’ was co-written by curator Helena Cox and myself for the Pre-Raphaelite Society Review, Summer 2021.
The drawing ‘Hair as in August 2018’ was nominated for the Van Ommeren de Voogt prize 2018. Margje Bijl was awarded a group show at Pulchri with nominee Sandra Thie and winner Paul Nassenstein. The article ‘Haarzelf’ was written by Klaske Havik for Pulchri magazine, December 2018.
The pencil drawings of Jane’s hairstyle have taken on a life of their own in this new series, and go further into depth. The portraits show traces of thoughts and stories. The detail of skin and hair contains labyrinthine landscapes in which the viewer can get lost. The muse gradually disappears from the picture, leaving room for other, new stories. New, but anchored in the search for the double, for the self, for the other. They invite you to look for the detail and what can be read in it.