Three different artists – Marlene Dumas, Louise Bourgeois and Nam June Paik – display their perspectives on modern life.

The Tate is holding a major exhibition “The Image as Burden”showing the work of Marlene Dumas (born 1953), the South African artist who now lives in Amsterdam.  Her work is challenging for the viewer – her painting style is unsettling as she uses her art to provide a view on different aspects of modern life: birth, death, sexuality, love, race and social issues.  Her work has deeper meaning than first appears the case and, to better understand it, there are helpful reviews by Adrian Searle in The Guardian and Ben Luke in The Evening Standard which should be read before visiting the exhibition.

The exhibition of prints, drawings and books by Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) reinforces what a great artist we lost with her death five years ago.  Bourgeois started making prints and etchings early in her career, but moved on to the sculpture, such as her large spiders, for which she is perhaps better known. She returned to printmaking in the 1990’s, collaborating with a number of publishers and printers and this exhibition demonstrates the quality of the work she achieved and how it links with other work such as her sculptures and her Insomnia Drawings shown by the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, in 2013.

Nam June Paik (1932 – 2006) was born in Korea, travelling to Hong Kong and Japan with his family before moving to Germany to study music history, where he met the artists Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell who encouraged his interest in electronic art.  He used video and other technology, integrated into radios, televisions and video cameras to create innovative modern art that provides a commentary on modern life and the influence of mass media.  This display, curated by Sook-Kyung Lee, showcases the diversity of his work.

Three different exhibitions with three artists displaying their different views on modern life.