AMSTERDAM.- The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam presents Marlene Dumas – The Image as Burden: the most comprehensive retrospective survey of the work Dumas has produced in Europe, with almost 200 paintings and drawings, from private and museum collections throughout the world. After being on show at the Stedelijk, the exhibition will travel to Tate Modern in London and Foundation Beyeler in Basel.

Marlene Dumas – The Image as Burden presents a compelling overview of her oeuvre from the late 1970s to the present, containing her most important and iconic works, in conjunction with lesser-known paintings and drawings.

The Stedelijk presentation features a number of exclusive highlights, such as a gallery devoted to drawings that have come straight from her studio, which have rarely – if ever – been on public view, and the 100- piece series Models from the collection of the Van Abbemuseum. The survey at the Stedelijk also places greater emphasis on the works produced between 1976 and1982, when Dumas’s career in Amsterdam began.

After many years, the key work in her oeuvre, Love vs Death (1980), which opens the exhibition, is once again on display. Also included are a selection of Dumas’s most recent paintings, such as The Widow and Nuclear Family, both from 2013, and a number of watercolor drawings from the series Great Men (2014), the remainder of which is currently on view at Manifesta in St. Petersburg.

Marlene Dumas – The Image as Burden is organized by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in collaboration with Tate Modern, London (February 4, 2015 – May 10, 2015) and Foundation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel (May 30, 2015 – September 13, 2015).

Marlene Dumas (Cape Town, South Africa, 1953) is considered one of the most significant and influential painters working today. Her emotionally charged paintings and drawings address existentialist themes such as eroticism, grief and shame while frequently referencing art-historical motifs and current political issues. Her work also reflects on new possibilities meanings that painting can still have today, in an era dominated by visual culture.

Dumas often finds inspiration in her large archive of magazine and newspaper photos. She believes that the endless stream of photographic images bombarding us every day influences how we see each other and the world around us. Dumas addresses this onslaught by revealing the psychological, social, and political aspects of these images.

The Stedelijk Museum has a longstanding relationship with Dumas. Her work was first exhibited at the Stedelijk in 1978, since when the museum has added 39 drawings and paintings to its collection. In 2012, the Stedelijk acquired the controversial portrait Osama (2010). After the museum reopened, it underlined the importance of Dumas to the Stedelijk and the Netherlands with the creation of a ‘solo gallery’ in the collection presentation.