Marlene Dumas is a South African, Amsterdam-based artist whose themes are relationships between art and femininity, art and pornography. Subjects of race, sexuality, social identity and personal experiences are portrayed by an artist in a unique and thought-provoking manner. Style of Expressionism is prevailing Dumas’ works however it is combined with Conceptual art and eroticism. Images of female bodies, children and snapshots of contemporary life events is artist’s way of commenting, criticizing and reflecting on art’s state and position today.
Dumas’ personal experience of growing up in South Africa has deeply influenced her works in which she aims to portray her concerns with society’s way to regard people as ‘types’ or ‘groups’ rather than individuals depending on their skin colour. Her series of ‘Black Drawings’ signifies such social intolerance. Another subject on Dumas’ mind is role of women in man’s world as a muse or a mistress and in her works she intends to persuade female audience of their power, uniqueness and potential dominance.
Birth of her own child has given Dumas yet another source of inspiration and created elements of vulnerability and fragility. Such vulnerability can also be grasped in artist’s series of male nudes in pornographic interpretations, yet it is fused with straightforwardness. In recent years Dumas has been exploring subjects of today’s political situations and has portrayed her concerns in a series of works titled ‘Blindfolded’, portraits of refugees and victims in the Middle East .Dumas’ works are direct yet intimate, emotional yet harsh, serious yet ironic.
-text by Anny Baranova