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Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave
December 14, 2008-February 16, 2009
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

This now passed exhibition of work of the acclaimed painter Marlene Dumas, organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in association with The Museum of Modern Art was the first of its scale to be mounted in the United States (December 14, 2008-February 16, 2009). It included about seventy paintings and thirty-five drawings, providing a comprehensive examination of the work of one of the most thought-provoking and fascinating artists working today. The exhibition opened with Dumas’s earliest mature works from the late 1970s. While loosely chronological, it also reflected her tendency to work in series, with key paintings grouped together. Through her focus on the human figure, Dumas merges themes of race, sexuality, and social identity with personal experience and art-historical antecedents to create a unique perspective on important and controversial issues of the day. The exhibition traced these themes over the course of the artist’s career, and provided access to paintings and drawings of extraordinary technical quality. The exhibition was accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, for those who missed it last year.

Images courtesy of the artist. © 2009 The Museum of Modern Art, New York