Dumas to speak about her art SALT Beyoğlu

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Artist Marlene Dumas is expected to talk about her relationship with the different types of models she uses in her work, at the Walk-in Cinema of SALT Beyoğlu.

Artist Marlene Dumas will talk about her relationship with the different types of models she uses in her work, at the Walk-in Cinema of SALT Beyoğlu in Istanbul on June 22 at 18:30. “Models,” a work comprised of 100 drawings by Dumas was on view earlier this year at SALT Beyoğlu as part of the Istanbul Eindhoven-SALTVanAbbe: Post ’89 exhibition.

Working mostly from photographic sources -- images torn from magazines and newspapers as well as personal snapshots -- Marlene Dumas employs classical modes of representation in Western art, such as the nude or the funerary portrait in her paintings. By working within and also transgressing these traditional historical antecedents, Dumas uses the human figure as a means to critique contemporary ideas of racial, sexual, and social identity. Dumas’ portraits exploit grays, blues and reds, removing subjects from their original context and striping them of any identifiable information. Through her focus on the human figure, Dumas merges socio-political themes with personal experience and art-historical antecedents to create a unique perspective on the most salient and controversial issues facing contemporary society. Her work consistently explores the construction of identity and the fluid distinctions between the public and the private.

In 2008, Dumas’ work was presented in a critically acclaimed retrospective, Measuring Your Own Grave, which was first on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and traveled to The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas, in 2009.