Marlene Dumas

 

Marlene Dumas, Stern, oil on canvas, 43.25 x 51.12”, 2004.

Marlene Dumas (b.1953) is a South African artist based in the Netherlands. 

“For me, a good portrait conveys a point where attraction and alienation meet” -Marlene Dumas

As a painter Dumas works from her own ‘image bank’ made up of a lifetimes worth of collecting photographs from magazines, newspapers, etc. She uses these photos are references for her paintings, and photographs almost exclusively constitute the basis for her art. She has worked with a number of 2D mediums, but now mostly focuses on oil paint and ink. In her figurative paintings Dumas is more interested in her “typology of portraits” in representing an emotion/state of mind than in representing a traditional ‘portrait’. Dumas has an ongoing exploration of portraiture, and she views identity - both personal and cultural - as constantly in flux. 

“I was looking for images to somehow show the coruscating nature of what the world was about - in a way, survival, you see?” -Marlene Dumas

In her series of work Man Kind (2002-06) Dumas also explores her adopted homelands’ (Netherlands) move towards a dangerous and racist cultural hegemony, stating that “the “other” is a mirror image of ourselves”.