Marlene Dumas

°1953, Cape Town (SA) – lives and works in Amsterdam (NL)

Marlene Dumas is one of the most important painters of our time. Her main interest is the human image. In her paintings and drawings, she avoids anecdotal details or atmospheric foregrounds or backgrounds. Instead, she reduces them until the existential constitution of her figures becomes visible. She prefers the term “situation” for a moment that is immediately touching. Suffering, pain, desire, life, death – Dumas always renders visible the ambivalence of each image, of each feeling. Like a projection surface, her painting mirrors fears and hopes.

Dumas’ work often refers to art historical motifs as well as political and social issues. Her portraiture reflects on the complexities of the image and the ambiguous status of painting in visual culture today. Variation as method-perhaps this is the best way to describe her work. She shows us how meaning has become fragmented, which characterizes our current times.

(courtesy of Albertinum)

 

Marlene Dumas
Marlene Dumas (Photo by Merlijn Doomernik)

Solo exhibitions include venues such as MoCA, Los Angeles; MoMA, New York; The Menil Collectin, Houston; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate Modern, London; Fondation Beyeler, Basel; and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

Work by Dumas is represented in museum collections worldwide, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Fondation Beyeler, Basel; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Tate Gallery, London.

Marlene Dumas is represented by the following galleries;
click through to discover more of her work.

Zeno X, Antwerp 

Frith Street Gallery, London

David Zwirner, New York / London / Paris / Hong Kong

You can also discover more of Marlene Dumas’ work on her own website.

works by Marlene Dumas

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