Marlene Dumas

'Marlene Dumas is well known for her expressive paintings, though few people know about her remarkable affinity for language. In her very first collages she was already making use of text fragments and she still combines words and images in her drawings. If one looks carefully, one can see small notes in Love Versus Death (1980), which is currently on view in the introductory gallery of the exhibition. More text appears in the subtle references under the portraits of Great Men (2014) in the large gallery. Dumas' love for language is also reflected in the suggestive titles of some of the works, such as Magdalena (Out of Eggs, Out of Business) (1995) and Measuring Your Own Grave (2003). In addition, Dumas has written an impressive number of texts over the past thirty years, ranging from statements and short, poetic texts to exploratory essays. This material was collected together in 1998 in the publication Sweet Nothings. Notes and Texts, which still serves as a source of inspiration for artists and art historians today, even though it has been out of print for many years.'