Sacrifice, 1993
Painting, 70 x 90 cm.
Collection M HKA, Antwerp / Collection Flemish Community, image: © M HKA
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp / Collection Flemish Community (Inv. no. BK006152).
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.
In the context of Ukraine today, Sacrifice could sound like the voice of every Ukrainian woman: vulnerable in the face of an aggressor.
Media
>Marlene Dumas, Sacrifice, 1993
>Marlene Dumas, Sacrifice (2), 2017
Artist
> Marlene Dumas.
Exhibitions & Ensembles
> Exhibition: The collection I – Fall 2002. M HKA, Antwerpen, 31 August 2002 - 10 November 2002.
> Exhibition: Collection Presentation II with Interventions by Joël Audebert, Nathalie Brevet & Hughes Rochette, Maria Roosen & Gert Robijns. MuHKA, Antwerpen, 23 November 2002 - 09 February 2003.
> Exhibition: The Collection. M HKA, Antwerpen, 28 April 2017 - 31 December 2021.
> Exhibition: When Faith Moves Mountains. PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, 17 July 2022 - 09 October 2022.
> Exhibition: Urgent Conversations Athens - Antwerp. National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST), Athens, 31 October 2016 - 05 February 2017.
> Exhibition: Worth Fighting For. Oskar Jager Strasse 97-99, Keulen, 14 November 2022 - 14 December 2022.
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> Exhibition: Herita-project. Herita, Antwerpen, 31 January 2014.
> Exhibition: The Situation is Fluid. M HKA, Antwerp, 25 January 2025 - 03 January 2027.
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> Ensemble: M HKA_DEFAULT_WORKS.
> Ensemble: NUCLEUS.
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> Ensemble: Secular Devotion.
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> Ensemble: Pin-Ups.
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> Ensemble: An Architecture for Art - Marlene Dumas.
> Ensemble: Worth Fighting For.
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> Ensemble: Catastrophe and The Relevance of Art.
> Ensemble: Collectie Vlaamse Gemeenschap.