Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas, a multifaceted artist from South Africa, is renowned for producing highly distinctive and immediately identifiable artworks. Across various mediums, Dumas employs a visual aesthetic characterized by unique forms and muted color palettes.

Biography of Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas was born in 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa. She attended Michaelis School of Fine Art, part of the University of Cape Town, in the early 1970s, laying a strong foundation for her future career. 

In 1976, Dumas made a pivotal decision to move to Amsterdam after earning a scholarship, where she embarked on extensive studies at the artist-run Institute de Ateliers. Nearly a decade later, she began painting human heads and figures, drawing heavily from photographic sources, particularly the works of Diane Arbus.

In 1985, Dumas held her first all-painting show at Galerie Paul Andriesse in Amsterdam, a city she embraced as her own. Noteworthy is her representation of the Netherlands during the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995. 

Marlene Dumas has created numerous other widely recognized and acclaimed projects. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she focused on a series of works depicting pregnancy and babies, sparking considerable awareness. During a collaboration with photographer Anton Corbijn in the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, Dumas worked on the project "Stripping Girls," which explored the subjects of strip clubs and peep shows in Amsterdam. This collaboration resulted in a series of photographs exhibited by Corbijn, while Dumas used them as inspiration for her paintings.

Marlene Dumas is also known for her self-portraits and paintings depicting her personal life. "Self Portrait at Noon" (2008) and "Dead Marilyn" (2008) are examples of such works, with the latter marking the beginning of a series of paintings focused on mourning and weeping women, created in the year following her mother's death. Before these series, in 2006, she turned her attention to political subjects, creating a portrait of Osama bin Laden with a mild smile and peaceful eyes, offering a contrasting image to the typical portrayal in the media.

Marlene Dumas' Art Style

Marlene Dumas' art is never a direct reproduction of a photograph but rather a cropped interpretation of select details from her source material. She often alters the coloration compared to the originals, frequently employing her characteristic palette of grays, blues, and reds to achieve the desired effects for which her work is renowned. Marlene Dumas is recognized for her adaptability and versatility in creating paintings, collages, drawings, prints, and installations. Her subjects are captured in their own moments in time, isolated from the world around them, appearing quiet and contemplative.

Dumas frequently explores somber themes such as birth and death, emphasizing both the physical reality of the human body and its psychological significance. Through her work, she critiques contemporary notions of racial, sexual, and social identity deeply embedded in our collective history. A notable example of Dumas's exploration of themes surrounding racial and ethical intolerance is her series of paintings titled "The Eyes of the Night Creatures," created in the mid-1990s.