Het rood in blauw veranderen

Julia de Dreu received a grant to write an essay book on art and feminism. In this work, she portrays female artists who lived in seclusion and, for various reasons, chose not to engage with the outside world. Their withdrawal can be seen as a form of resistance, but also reveals a desire to escape an often aggressive external reality. Julia explores the motivations of these artists, their work, and their personal histories. In a personal and associative style, she connects their art to contemporary society, where many (young) people are encouraged to live life to the fullest, to be entrepreneurs of the self, and to equate their human worth with their visibility.

As a writer and essayist, Julia is fascinated by the artist as a disruptor — the outcast, the stranger, the one who thinks differently. Through a feminist lens, she investigates the position of artists in the world and how, by making art, they raise a middle finger to a modern battlefield dominated by money and power. Julia participated in the Slow Writing Lab of the Dutch Foundation for Literature and has written essays for Trouw, Domein voor Kunstkritiek, Hooray for the Essay, De Revisor, De Optimist, and Hard//hoofd. Her most recent essay has been nominated for the Jan Hanlo Essayprijs Klein 2025.