M HKA Ensembles

Painting, Acrylic paint on canvas.

Collection: Collection M HKA, donation of the artist (Inv. no. S0700).

Sacrifice represents a person seen from the back, who is facing a line of legs and feet. Marlene Dumas uses photographs and films as source material, alters and enlists them for her own purposes. Dumas allows reality to resonate in painting. She starts out from reality and moves into a pictorial reality, whereby she merges intimacy, embedded humour, tragedy, experience, and acceptance. In her work, feelings, reflection and action appear to operate in concert. It is impossible to estimate the tenor of her intentions, for a painter can in the end only be read in the painting’s form. The work’s title, the way it is painted and the use of colour convey the impression of an emotional event. However, we do not know exactly what is happening. Dumas leaves ample room for interpretation.