"Marlene Dumas (b.1953) is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential artists working today. In an era dominated by the mass media and a proliferation of images, her work is a testament to the meaning and potency of painting. Her intense, psychologically-charged works explore themes such as sexuality, love, death and grief, often referencing art history, popular culture and current affairs. The title of this catalogue is derived from Dumas's work The Image as Burden 1993, which refers to the conflict between the painterly gesture and the illusion of the painted image. Dumas wants to put the emphasis on 'what the painting does to the image, rather than what the image does to the painting'. The Image of Burden accompanies a retrospective of the same name taking place at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Tate Modern, London, and Fondation Beyeler/Basel. It is the first publication to give a chronological overview of Marlene Dumas's career through carefully selected texts and images grouped together around her solo exhibitions. Texts published in magazines, newspapers and books over a period of more than thirty-five years in many different languages, are brought together for the first time in this book. A timeline with references to significant moments in art, culture, politics anf Dumas's personal life offers a deeper insight into the context of Marlene Dumas's practice of the last forty years. The catalogue includes a new interview with the artist by Theodora Vischer, an essay by Leontine Coelewij, and Barton Springs, a specially-commissioned piece of writing by the award-winning Irish novelist Com Tóibín in response to Dumas's work." --