Sculptor who was concerned with such subjects as death and rebirth, women as icons and goddesses and light and motion in her work, born in New York. In 1958 she studied archaeology and art history in Paris, then while living in New York again at the start of the 1960s began experimenting with movement and light, which led to first solo show in Paris at La Librairie Anglaise, in 1963. After living in Greece in the mid-1960s she settled in London in 1966, where she continued to work. Other shows followed in Britain and abroad, including a key one-man at Serpentine Gallery in 1976 and an individual Arts Council touring show in 1977. Later exhibited with Fischer Fine Art, with a solo exhibition, Koans, at Shirley Day Ltd, 2000. In 2005 a retrospective of works by Lijn (pronounced Lin) from 1959–79 was held at The Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick.
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Her 1972 piece White Koan stands outside the Centre. The show traced the evolution of her output from early Surrealist-influenced drawings made in Paris, through assimilation of the cut-up techniques of the Beat poets, to her kinetic experiments with industrial plastics and light. After moving to London Lijn’s sculptures proved increasingly ambitious, with the Liquid Reflections series, 1966–8, and ultimately became more political. The 1973 Arts Council film What is the sound of one hand clapping was played at the retrospective and the exhibition closed with two sculptures from 1979, Feathered Lady and HeShe, which heralded a change in Lijn’s work. The Mead Gallery retrospective followed a commission from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charitable Foundation for the Evelina Children’s Hospital, which resulted in Starside, a sculpture designed to be a children’s helter-skelter. A notable earlier commission was Circle of Light, for Milton Keynes Development Corporation, sited in 1980 in the Shopping Building, Midsummer Arcade. Lijn’s sculptures, in various materials, are in a number of other public collections, including that of the Arts Council. Leeds Museums and Galleries as well as sculpture hold archive material relating to her output. Austin/Desmond Fine Art and England & Co both gave Lijn significant shows in 2006.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
