2021
PRS Review Summer 2021
An article about the upcoming exhibition ‘Jane Morris Museum’ at the Beverley Art Gallery in 2022. Co-written by curator Helena Cox and myself for the Pre-Raphaelite Society.
Margje Bijl’s solo show at Beverley Art Gallery aims to explore and celebrate the Pre-Raphaelite ‘muse’ through the work of a contemporary artist with a striking physical resemblance to Jane Morris. Contrasting the two reveals a universal struggle and extends to the very foundations of creativity and understanding the self through one’s mirroring in another.
‘My ladys soul”: The Successes of Elizabeth Siddal & Jane Morris,
& the Rise of the Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood.
This honors thesis by Alyssa Grady is available at Iowa Research Online.
‘…Elizabeth Siddal and Jane Morris will, perhaps, always be seen as pretty faces by some, but their lives are also being redefined in creative works like Dawn Marie Kresan’s poetry book, Muse, and Dutch artist’s Margje Bijl’s photography on Jane Morris.Through these projects and the continuation of Pre–Raphaelite scholarship, old opinions, are being transformed, … and appreciation for Elizabeth and Jane’s creative output has grown.’
2019
Pre-Raphaelite Sisters: Making Art Conference
Galerie de Molen
Duo exhibition with Willem van Dam
Tekenkabinet
Exhibition Catalogue
Haagse Kunstkring
Exhibition Catalogue van Bruegel tot Bommel
2018
van Ommeren de Voogt Prize 2018
‘The pencil drawings of Jane’s hairstyles have been transformed into leading a life of their own in these new drawings. They reach into the depths of drawing itself. The portraits still show traces of thoughts and stories. In the detail of skin and hair lie labyrinthine landscapes in which the viewer can get lost. The muse gradually disappears from the image and leaves room for other, new stories. New, but anchored in the search for the doppelganger, to the self, to the other. They invite you to look the detail and think about what you can read in it.’
(Klaske Havik for Pulchri Magazine)
Den Haag Centraal
van Ommeren de Voogt Prize 2018
Pulchri magazine (PDF)
Studio visit
Fresh Arising/Verse Aanwas
2017
Galerie Atelier Herenplaats is an art academy for mentally and physically challenged artists, where I enjoyed teaching linocutting and etching for between 2015 and 2018. A series of this creation process is shown in the book ‘Geen woorden maar beelden, 25 jaar Galerie Atelier Herenplaats, Outsider Art in Nederland’, also available in English.
2016
Saatchi Art
Artist of the Day
Den Haag Centraal
mentioned in interview Ter Plekke with Klaske Havik
2015
Lone Wolf magazine interview (PDF)
‘…Suddenly, a strange new prospect presented itself. Here was an opportunity to give someone pushed aside by history, the voice she so deserved. Here was a chance to give Jane her moment in the spotlight, not as a muse, but as a flesh and blood woman. And so, Margje set out out to turn a fading myth into a breathing story, using herself as Jane’s surrogate…’
Margje Bijl for Lone Wolf magazine by Liselotte Fleur
2014
the Kissed Mouth, Kirsty Walker
Review: Rossetti’s Obsession: Images of Jane Morris
A Guest at the Memory Palace
‘It isn’t just through the beautiful photographs that Margje explores Jane. Her art and portraits give back an uncompromising gaze of a stunner born anew through her 21st century avatar (many thanks to Jan Marsh for using the word ‘avatar’ to describe Margje, just the most perfect word). I have never seen such a battle rage between two women for experience and truth to be revealed, from Jane’s passive unwillingness and Margje’s courageous exploration’.
‘Graphic novel about Victorian characters Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Jane Burden traveling through time and space and having adventures. In one section Jane Morris meets fellow muse Margje Bijl’.
Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood, Stephanie Pina
100 Years After Her Death, Jane Morris Continues to Inspire
and the Kissed Mouth, Kirsty Walker
A Muse Unburdened, Ulrik Nilsson
2013
William Morris Newsletter, Autumn issue included a fragment from blog post by Kirsty Walker about my solo exhibition at William Morris Gallery, ‘A Memory Palace of her Own’
A Palace of Memory, A Face of Her Own
‘I think the aspect of Margje’s work that I find most striking is her ability to be Jane and herself in a dual act of understanding of Jane’s true character and the part she played for Rossetti. I think you will agree the photographs that accompany her narrative are so lovely and the use of colour brings me back to Rossetti and the rich jewels of Venetian portraiture. The way she plays with spaces is intriguing, stepping through portals of imagination, between William Morris Gallery, Cheyne Walk and the V&A that exist for her and Jane as both separate and simultaneous spaces. Her art allows the truths of the buildings to whisper through and the surroundings of the Stunners are often as beautiful as the women that inhabited them.’
A limited edition CD was made especially for the private view of my exhibition ‘A Memory Palace of Her Own’ at the William Morris Gallery in 2014. I greatly enjoyed making this off-the-cuff recording with composer Jolle Roelofs, who is also responsible for the editing of the sound fragments and the improvisations on ukulele and piano.
Writing place, Klaske Havik
House of Memory
Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood, Stephanie Chatfield
The Handwriting of Jane Morris
Grote Haagse Kunstkalender 2013
First edition of the Big Art Calendar
ISBN 978 94 90608 44 6
William Morris Newsletter, Spring 2013
article about my work ‘Jane Morris double’
2012
William Morris Newsletter, New Year 2012
photo included in ‘Jane Morris doubles’
Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood, Stephanie Chatfield
Transposed onto the Blank Canvas
2011
Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood, Stephanie Chatfield
Reflections on Jane Morris
‘Margje’s work may have been initially inspired by Jane, but when I look at her photographs I see that it has grown into something larger. It is a body of work that can also stand alone. A viewer who may have never heard of Jane Morris, unwitting of the project’s intent, would still be struck by the artistic integrity of the work.’