The Glasgow School of Art

'The Immortals'
Folkert de Jong 

Dutch artist Folkert de Jong makes a new installation of figurative sculptures for the Mackintosh Museum, inspired by the figures of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh. The exhibition title 'The Immortals' refers to the name they gave to their peer group that included Herbert McNair and Margaret's sister Frances. 

Folkert de Jong is an artist who freely mixes up times, materials and cultural references in his work. By re-considering the Mackintoshes as actors within this well-known architectural space, de Jong will explore the 'theatricality' of the Museum.

Folkert will bring a contemporary approach to figurative sculpture which will also make lively connections with the Museum's past function as the drawing studio, housing all the figurative classical plaster casts for students to learn from.

De Jong's exhibition will travel to Galerie Dukan Hourdequin in Paris later this year.

Commissioned by The Glasgow School of Art in association with Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art with support from the Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam.

Preview: Friday 20 April, 6-8pm, All are welcome to attend. 

Folkert de Jong (b. 1972) studied at the Rijksakademie of Fine Art in Amsterdam. Recently he designed costumes and props for a theatre play 'Troilus and Cressida' by the Wooster group and The Royal Shakespeare Company. He is currently working on a public sculpture for The Hague's King's Square. De Jong has exhibited widely internationally, including solo exhibitions at James Cohan Gallery New York; Luis Adelantado Gallery Mexico City; Kunsthalle Winterhur, Switzerland; Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK. Group exhibitions include Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture, The Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2011); Monumental: Contemporary Figurative Sculpture Herbert Johnson Museum of Art New York (2010) and Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia (2010).