Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1953, Marlene Dumas went to The Netherlands in the late 1970s, where she studied painting and psychology, and where she continues to live and work today. She was recently the subject of a critically acclaimed retrospective, Measuring Your Own Grave, which featur... Read more
Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1953, Marlene Dumas went to The Netherlands in the late 1970s, where she studied painting and psychology, and where she continues to live and work today. She was recently the subject of a critically acclaimed retrospective, Measuring Your Own Grave, which featured over 100 paintings and works on paper and was the largest and most comprehensive examination of the artist ever presented in North America. This survey began at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and traveled to The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas (2008-2009). Also in 2008, the Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, and the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, presented two consecutive shows of the artist’s work, marking the first time Dumas had solo exhibitions in her homeland. Haus der Kunst, Munich, will have Marlene Dumas: Tronies on view from October 2010 to February 2011. Dumas has been the subject of many one-person exhibitions at such institutions as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2007); Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Marugame, Japan (2007-2008); The Art Institute of Chicago (2003); Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Palazzetto Tito, Venice (2003); De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg, The Netherlands (2002); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2001); The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2001); Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (1998); and Tate Gallery, London (1996). In 1995 she represented The Netherlands at the 46th Venice Biennale (together with Marijke van Warmerdam and Maria Roosen).
Her work is in the collections of major museums and public institutions, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Gallery, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; and Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst, Munich.
