Marlene Dumas Against The Wall

Described by Deborah Solomon in a New York Times profile as “one of contemporary art’s most compelling painters,” Marlene Dumas has continuously explored the complex range of human emotions, often probing questions of gender, race, sexuality, and economic inequality through her dramatic and at times haunting figural compositions. Originally published in 2010 on the occasion of Against the Wall, Dumas’s first solo presentation at David Zwirner in New York, this much sought-after exhibition catalogue—which sold out shortly after publication—has been reprinted to coincide with the artist’s 2014–2015 European retrospective exhibition The Image as Burden, organized by Tate Modern, London in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Fondation Beyeler, Basel. Throughout her career, the internationally renowned artist has continually created lyrically charged compositions that eulogize the frailties of the human body, probing issues of love and melancholy. At times her subjects are more topical, merging socio-political themes with personal experience and art-historical antecedents to reflect unique perspectives on the most salient and controversial issues facing contemporary society. The large-scale works included in Against the Wall are primarily based on media imagery and newspaper clippings documenting the conflict between Israel and Palestine, exploring the tension between the photographic documentation of reality and the constructed, imaginary space of painting. The Wall, the painting that began the series, at first appears to present a scene at the Western Wall (also known as the Wailing Wall), an important site of religious pilgrimage located in Jerusalem. However, this work is based upon a photograph from a newspaper that portrayed a group of Orthodox Jews on their way to pray at Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. Through her delicate treatment of every scene, Dumas destabilizes preconceived notions about what, in fact, is being pictured—engaging the often ambiguous nature of ideas like truth or justice. “In a sense they are my first landscape paintings,” Dumas further notes in the catalogue, “or should I say ‘territory paintings.’ That is why they are so big.” The somber color plates reproduced in the publication are given context by Dumas’s own musings, a text framed as a letter to David Zwirner in which she tries to tell him “about the ‘why’ ” of this powerful series.

The lyrically charged paintings of Marlene Dumas (born 1953) eulogize the frailties of the human body, probing themes of love, melancholy and confusion even as they slyly critique racial and gender prejudice. Dumas' particular gift is to freight the haunting handling of her imagery with a political and/or sexual edge. Famed internationally (especially since her Museum of Modern Art retrospective of 2008) after three decades of perfecting her vulnerable and poised style, Dumas continues to evolve these universal themes of love and loss. Her newest series, titled "Against the Wall," is comprised of large-scale paintings that include scenes of mourning mothers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem (also known as the Wailing Wall). Published on the occasion of Dumas' exhibition at David Zwirner, Dumas' first at the gallery, only a few copies of "Against the Wall" are available, making it certain to quickly become a collector's item.

Published on the occasion of the twenty-five year anniversary of David Zwirner, this book paints a picture of the gallery’s growth and development through the lens of the artists that have shaped it. Since its founding in 1993, David Zwirner has above all else been guided by its artist-centric ethos. Beginning with the gallery's early days on Greens Street in SoHo, to its transition and expansion to Chelsea, London, the Upper East Side, and Hong Kong, this book captures David Zwirner's devotion to its inimitable roster of artists and estates. The heart of the publication is a wide-ranging, dynamic selection of the gallery's standout exhibitions—in many cases handpicked by David Zwirner himself. Many of these exhibitions highlight the countless works that ended up in major museum and private collections around the world. Also featured is an extensive gallery history that details all of the exhibitions by every artist and estate presented at David Zwirner, accompanied by archival imagery. With contributions by Richard Shiff and Robert Storr, as well as a foreword by David Zwirner, this publication offers rare insights into the growth of a commercial gallery through its long-term commitment to artists.

In The Imagined and Real Jerusalem in Art and Architecture specialists in various fields of art history, from Early Christian times to the present, discuss in depth a series of Western artworks, artefacts, and buildings, which question the visualization of Jerusalem.

Bon Courage is a fierce, eclectic, and intimate collection that encompasses the big questions of our time: what we mean by courage, how we define our world, how we choose to exist in it. Bon Courage is an exhilarating journey through a layered intellectual landscape textured with a range of political and personal enthusiasms, and emboldened by a passionate defense of the disregarded. Wide ranging and inclusive in the essay mode, deep and revealing as a memoir, with the dynamics and layering of great fiction. As if that’s not enough, it sings. Ru Freeman participates intimately while bringing global perspectives to subjects as diverse as Bowie and Dylan, Palestine, 9/11, hairstyles, personal and cultural identity, motherhood and #MeToo. A resplendent and compendious exploration of great empathy, insight, and bon courage indeed. This is a book that is going to make a difference.

The lyrically charged paintings of Marlene Dumas (born 1953) eulogize the frailties of the human body, probing themes of love, melancholy and confusion even as they slyly critique racial and gender prejudice. Dumas' particular gift is to freight the haunting handling of her imagery with a political and/or sexual edge. Famed internationally (especially since her Museum of Modern Art retrospective of 2008) after three decades of perfecting her vulnerable and poised style, Dumas continues to evolve these universal themes of love and loss. Her newest series, titled "Against the Wall," is comprised of large-scale paintings that include scenes of mourning mothers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem (also known as the Wailing Wall). Published on the occasion of Dumas' exhibition at David Zwirner, Dumas' first at the gallery, only a few copies of "Against the Wall" are available, making it certain to quickly become a collector's item.

30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we live in a time of globalization and free trade. Nevertheless, 70 new border walls have been built in this period - put together, they would cover the total circumference of the Earth. While governments offer manifold justifications for building these separation barriers, they invariably attract the attention of artists. Is it merely the lure of transgression, however, that attracts them - or is there a deeper significance in the artistic encounter with border walls? And which artistic strategies do these artists employ to approach them? In order to address these questions, Élisa Ganivet revisits the history of border wall aesthetics and compares more recent border-related works by 100 artists, including Joseph Beuys (Berlin), Banksy (Israel-Palestine), and Frida Kahlo (Mexico-US). Through art and thus beyond art, we understand the flaws and shortcomings of supposedly well-oiled systems. With a preface by Élisabeth Vallet.

Demonstrates how activists and others use art and popular culture to strive for a more democratic future. Doing Democracy examines the potential of the arts and popular culture to extend and deepen the experience of democracy. Its contributors address the use of photography, cartooning, memorials, monuments, poetry, literature, music, theater, festivals, and parades to open political spaces, awaken critical consciousness, engage marginalized groups in political activism, and create new, more democratic societies. This volume demonstrates how ordinary people use the creative and visionary capacity of the arts and popular culture to shape alternative futures. It is unique in its insistence that democratic theorists and activists should acknowledge and employ affective as well as rational faculties in the ongoing struggle for democracy. “Nancy S. Love and Mark Mattern have collected a first-rate set of studies that illuminate the intersection between art and politics in the contemporary era. The text demonstrates how activist art and cultural politics can promote democratic politics and how democracy is enriched and enlivened by activist art projects. This book should interest everyone concerned with the fate of art and democracy in the contemporary era and how they can help nourish each other.” — Douglas Kellner, author of Media Spectacle and Insurrection, 2011: From the Arab Uprisings to Occupy Everywhere