Marlene Dumas
| Marlene Dumas Harriet Zinnes |
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There is a difficulty in viewing the artwork of Marlene Dumas. Questions arise. What is pornography? What is nude? What is naked? | 
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 All images are courtesty of MOMA. |
How does the reliance on the photograph as an almost exclusive source material make authentic the complete realization of the art? Does the source lead to ambiguity? Is it all sex and skin? What is beauty? What is ugliness? Is the human body the measure of all things? | 
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| There is effrontery in the exhibition title, Measuring Your Own Grave, which comes from a painting made in 2003 where a figure bows toward the viewer, stretching its arms the width of the canvas, suggesting that the space of the canvas becomes the figure’s coffin or grave, or as the artist assumes, that this measuring is equal to the process of representation itself. A difficult equation. | |||
