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Marlene Dumas (*1953 in Cape Town, South Africa )  is one of the most important painters of our time. Her main interest is the human image. In her paintings and drawings, she avoids anecdotal details or atmospheric foregrounds or backgrounds. Instead, she reduces them until the existential constitution of her figures becomes visible. She prefers the term "situation" for a moment that is immediately touching. Suffering, pain, desire, life, death – Dumas always renders visible the ambivalence of each image, of each feeling. Like a projection surface, her painting mirrors fears and hopes.

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Like many of her series, "Skulls" (2011-2015) on display in the Albertinum, is a conceptual work as the impact of the series as a whole is achieved in the sum of varying single images. For Marlene Dumas, as a painter interested in the human condition, the skull motif is fundamental. Hung as a frieze, the work invites viewers to approach the skulls individually, to observe and study them in their singularity and to recognise, eventually, the universal condition that affects every person existentially. Also in the Albertinum, works are on display by Jan Andriesse and Bert Boogaard who collaborated with Dumas on the Annenkirche altarpiece. The presentation provides insight into the individual creative activities of both artists.

Dumas' work often refers to art historical motifs as well as political and social issues. Her portraiture reflects on the complexities of the image and the ambiguous status of painting in visual culture today. Variation as method-perhaps this is the best way to describe her work. She shows us how meaning has become fragmented, which characterizes our current times.

The exhibtion was curated by Kathleen Reinhardt and Holger Birkholz. 

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The Kupferstich-Kabinett presents "Marlene Dumas. Hope and Fear" parallel to this exhibition.

Marlene Dumas. Hope and Fear