Lili Dujourie "Lili Dujourie"

‘[On Saturday, 27 August 1988] on the Prinseneiland, De Appel Foundation will open an exhibition of the work of Lili Dujourie. Dujourie, who lives in Lovendegem near Ghent, has been represented in several group exhibitions in the Netherlands (Van Abbemuseum - Eindhoven 1985, Sonsbeek ’86 Arnhem, Century-Amsterdam 1987), but this is the first solo presentation of her work in this country. In choosing her sculptures, Dujourie works with the space that is being made available to her: she designed a ceiling sculpture for a floating pavilion in Sonsbeek park and a fountain for a garden in Amsterdam. For the space offered by De Appel she chose one older work (American Imperialism from 1972) and three new works from the years 1986 to 1988, which together form an impression that is more restrained and stark than the baroque, velvet-laden sculptures of earlier years. The choice of works, besides being aimed at the architecture of the space at hand, also acts as a snapshot of Dujourie’s development. The draperies and reflections are still there but are ‘caught’ in an austere framework; melancholy and drama make way for control and precision in a presentation that, as usual, is carefully measured. Yet the same principles are operative in all her work. Heaviness and lightness, space and illusion are the themes she deals with in her sculpture, effortlessly – almost ‘en passant’, with the representation of the idea shining through it all.’ (Press release De Appel)