Mourning Marsyas
From left to right: Ceasefire, 2024, Tombstone Lovers, 2021 and History, 2003–2024
Artists
Marlene Dumas
Press release
The paintings in this exhibition are created through a mixture of chance and intention, mostly evolving in a dance through time, combining very fast and focused actions with reflective pauses. Here, Dumas’s style as well as subjects move between being in and out of control. We encounter neither portraits nor observations, but images of feelings and moods. The tone is one of mourning, of the desperation of displacement, and of grief both personal and universal.
Painting as mourning
"There is nothing new about these works. Neither in their themes, nor in their process of becoming. What Dracula said to his love applies to my painted figures, “I have crossed oceans of time to find you.” These works are heavy with the weight of a bad conscience, deceased lovers, past failures and present atrocities. To paint is an apology for painting.
Live in the moment? At this moment children are dying in Gaza, while I am reading Ovid. In his epic Metamorphoses everyone is telling everyone stories. Revenge rules.
- Through
- 16 November 2024
- Venue
- Frith Street Gallery (Golden Square)
- Address
- 17–18 Golden Square
- Hours
- Tue-Fri: 11:00-18:00, Sat: 11:00-17:00
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