Marlene Dumas : "The Image as Burden"

A friend of mine recently returned to California with the most thoughtful gift: the art book released with  Marlene Dumas' recent retrospective at the prestigious Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Chrissta is a special friend, a thoughtful friend, who saw the show and was reminded of me and the last time we visited the Stedelijk together when I visited her in 2012 :)
I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS BOOK!

D-rection, 1999.

Jesus Serene, 1994.

Magnetic Fields, 2008.

The First People, 1990.

The Jewish Girl, 1986.

I first encountered Marlene Dumas' paintings when I was in Chelsea in NYC 2006. I remember feeling as if I happened upon a gold mine. From far away her paintings are complex. Detailed. But when you get closer you realize that she works quickly with smudged, loose, watered down medium. Incredible :)