THE IMAGE AS A BURDEN -MARLENE DUMAS

'Marlene Dumas is one of the most prominent painters working today. Her intense, psychologically charged works explore themes of sexuality, love, death and shame, often referencing art history, popular culture, politics and current affairs.
     ‘Secondhand images’, she has said, ‘can generate first-hand emotions.’ Dumas never paints directly from life, instead choosing to use pre-existing images for her source material. Her subjects are drawn from both public and personal references and include her daughter and herself, as well as recognisable faces such as Amy Winehouse, Naomi Campbell, Princess Diana, even Osama bin Laden. The results are often intimate and at times controversial, where politics become erotic and portraits become political. She plays with the imagination of her viewers, their preconceptions and fears. She cherishes the potency and physicality of painting and what it brings to the image.
    Born in 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa, Dumas moved to the Netherlands in 1976, where she came to prominence in the mid-1980s. This large-scale survey is the most significant exhibition of her work ever to be held in Europe, charting her career from early works, through seminal paintings to new works on paper.' ( Abbreviated and adapted from Tate Modern catalogue)

        I didn't know Marlene Dumas' work, but now exposed to it some of her paintings and images are incised in my psyche. Using colour to create mood and psychological impact, some are very disturbing, such as the child in The Painter, whose hands could have been dipped in human blood not paint. I loved the sad jazz note of Amy Winehouse's portrait so much I bought a print. If you don't know her work, this is another MUST SEE

Marlene Dumas: The Image as Burden

Tate Modern: Exhibition

5 February – 10 May 2015

Adult £16.00 (without donation £14.50)
Concession £14.00 (without donation £12.70)
Help Tate by including the voluntary donation to enable Gift Aid
No booking fees with this exhibition
Under 12s go free (up to four per parent or guardian). Family tickets available by telephone or in the gallery.
Learn more about Dumas through related events

Please note: This exhibition includes some works with explicit content. Please contact us for further information.