Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave

The exhibition Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave is the first large-scale survey of the work of Marlene Dumas (b. 1953, Cape Town, lives in Amsterdam) to be organized by an American institution. Dumas works mainly in a figurative style probing themes of love, desire, confusion and despair in her drawings and paintings. With a focus on women, children, and people of color, 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. An extraordinary and proficient painter, this work is ultimately as much about their artistic creation as they are about the figures they depict. Curated by Connie Butler, The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings at The Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition will include approximately 60 paintings and 25 drawings tracing the themes of Dumas’s work over her 30-year career. Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue which will offer a comprehensive and scholarly examination of the artist’s career featuring new texts by Connie Butler, MOCA Director of Publications Lisa Gabrielle Mark, art historian Richard Shiff, artist Matthew Monahan, as well as writings by the artist, and an extensive exhibition history and bibliography. After the presentation at MOCA, Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave will travel to The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where it will be on view from December 14, 2008 through February 16, 2009.

Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave is organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) in association with The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

MOCA’s presentation is made possible by generous support from Brenda R. Potter and Michael C. Sandler; Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam; Blake Byrne; Mark Fisch; Steve Martin; The MOCA Contemporaries; the Barbara Lee Family Foundation; the Robert Lehman Foundation; the Pasadena Art Alliance; Elizabeth A. Sackler, JCF, Museum Educational Trust; Jack and Connie Tilton; Netherland-America Foundation; Linda and Jerry Janger; Dr. S. Sanford Kornblum and Mrs. Charlene S. Kornblum; B. J. Russell Mylne; and Jerome and Ellen Stern.

Ovation TV is the Official Network Partner of MOCA.

Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave

Kuratorin: Cornelia H. Butler

Stationen:
22.06.08 - 22.09.08 The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
14.12.08 - 16.02.09 Museum of Modern Art, New York