Marlene Dumas Exhibition at Tate Modern

Marlene Dumas is one of the most prominent painters working today. Her intense, psychologically charged works explore themes of sexuality, love, death and shame, often referencing art history, popular culture and current affairs.

Her subjects are drawn from both public and personal references and include her daughter and herself, as well as recognisable faces such as Amy Winehouse, Naomi Campbell, Princess Diana, even Osama bin Laden. The results are often intimate and at times controversial, where politics become erotic and portraits become political. She plays with the imagination of her viewers, their preconceptions and fears.

Born in 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa, Dumas moved to the Netherlands in 1976, where she came to prominence in the mid- 1980s. This large-scale survey is the most significant exhibition of her work ever to be held in Europe, charting her career from early works, through seminal paintings to new works on paper. The Marlene Dumas: The Image As Burden exhibition is on at Tate Modern until 10 May.

Marlen Dumas - Amy - Blue 2011 Marlene Dumas – Amy – Blue 2011 at National Portrait Gallery, London. Photo: ©MarleneDumas/PeterCox.

Tina Engstrom

This is the first comprehensives exhibition in the United Kingdom of Giovanni Battista Moroni’s work. He was one of the greatest portraits of 16th century Italy. Famed for his gift capturing the exact likeness of his sitters, he created portraits that are as penetrating and powerful now as they were more than 400 years ago.

10 February 2017

Top 10 Things To See At London's Victoria & Albert Museum

With a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects, London's Victoria & Albert Museum is the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design. You would need many years – maybe a lifetime - to look through this unequalled treasure trove so what better solution than hiring a Blue Badge Tourist Guide to select and explain some of the exceptional artefacts on display.