Marlene Dumas: Against the Wall
Author: Marlene Dumas
Format: Hardback, 242mm x 318mm, 640g, 68 pages
Published: David Zwirner, United States, 2014
Described in a 2008 New York Times profile as 'one of contemporary art's most compelling painters', Marlene Dumas has continuously explored the complex range of human emotions, often probing questions of gender, race, sexuality, and economic inequality through her dramatic and at times haunting figural compositions.
Originally published in 2010 on the occasion of Against the Wall, Dumas's first solo presentation at David Zwirner in New York, this much sought-after exhibition catalogue - which sold out shortly after publication - has been reprinted in 2014 to coincide with the artist's European retrospective exhibition The Image as Burden, organized by Tate Modern, London, in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the Fondation Beyeler, Basel, traveling through 2015.
The large-scale works included in Against the Wall are primarily based on media imagery and newspaper clippings documenting Israel and Palestine, exploring the tension between the photographic documentation of reality and the constructed, imaginary space of painting. The sombre colour plates reproduced in the publication are given context by Dumas's own musings, a text framed as a letter to David Zwirner in which she tries to tell him 'about the why' of this powerful series.
Widely regarded as one of the most influential painters working today, Marlene Dumas has continuously explored the complex range of human emotions, often probing questions of gender, race, sexuality, and economic inequality. Through her focus on the human figure, Dumas merges socio-political themes with personal experience and art-historical antecedents to create a unique perspective on the most salient and controversial issues facing contemporary society. Her work consistently explores constructions of identity and the fluid distinctions between the public and the private.
Author: Marlene Dumas
Format: Hardback, 242mm x 318mm, 640g, 68 pages
Published: David Zwirner, United States, 2014
Described in a 2008 New York Times profile as 'one of contemporary art's most compelling painters', Marlene Dumas has continuously explored the complex range of human emotions, often probing questions of gender, race, sexuality, and economic inequality through her dramatic and at times haunting figural compositions.
Originally published in 2010 on the occasion of Against the Wall, Dumas's first solo presentation at David Zwirner in New York, this much sought-after exhibition catalogue - which sold out shortly after publication - has been reprinted in 2014 to coincide with the artist's European retrospective exhibition The Image as Burden, organized by Tate Modern, London, in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the Fondation Beyeler, Basel, traveling through 2015.
The large-scale works included in Against the Wall are primarily based on media imagery and newspaper clippings documenting Israel and Palestine, exploring the tension between the photographic documentation of reality and the constructed, imaginary space of painting. The sombre colour plates reproduced in the publication are given context by Dumas's own musings, a text framed as a letter to David Zwirner in which she tries to tell him 'about the why' of this powerful series.
Widely regarded as one of the most influential painters working today, Marlene Dumas has continuously explored the complex range of human emotions, often probing questions of gender, race, sexuality, and economic inequality. Through her focus on the human figure, Dumas merges socio-political themes with personal experience and art-historical antecedents to create a unique perspective on the most salient and controversial issues facing contemporary society. Her work consistently explores constructions of identity and the fluid distinctions between the public and the private.