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Lot Essay
Marlene Dumas is a painter fascinated by the human form and the range of emotions it can express. As a direct descendent of Expressionism, Dumas continues painting in a gestural vein, but infuses her work with eroticism and a contemporary view.
Part of the appeal of Dumas' work lies in the fact that the viewer intuitively feels that the artist is attempting to confront the world around her and the world within her. Born in South Africa where apartheid laws were imposed, Dumas' paintings draw upon her past exposure to difficult political and social issues, and address such subjects as gender, identity, oppression and sexuality. Her creative inspiration is culled from mass media sources, newspaper cuttings, written texts, and popular media photographs, or images that she herself has taken.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dumas produced a series of works based around the subject of pregnancy and babies. Children in various stages of youth, from birth until early adolescence was then a natural progression of subject matter. In 1992, Dumas painted The Dance. The title is rather deceptive as it brings to mind images of a joyful scene, of music and lightness. Instead, Dumas' painting illustrates children of various ethnicities in a bleak interior all facing a wall with their backs to the viewer. The pleasure of the dance is overwhelmed by the emptiness and melancholy of the environment in which they stand. The artist has been able to subvert the viewer's expectations. Yet even within this bleak interior, the colors of the children's clothes are bright and the children stand united. Here, the artist has unlocked a chain of associated thoughts as the intimacy of this scene draws an emotional response from the viewer; the feeling is one of hope and harmony.
The purity and candor of the work of Marlene Dumas seem like a reflection of her own self-awareness, as she strives for a direct method of exploring such essential themes as life, death, birth, sex, religion and love.
Marlene Dumas source material.
Part of the appeal of Dumas' work lies in the fact that the viewer intuitively feels that the artist is attempting to confront the world around her and the world within her. Born in South Africa where apartheid laws were imposed, Dumas' paintings draw upon her past exposure to difficult political and social issues, and address such subjects as gender, identity, oppression and sexuality. Her creative inspiration is culled from mass media sources, newspaper cuttings, written texts, and popular media photographs, or images that she herself has taken.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dumas produced a series of works based around the subject of pregnancy and babies. Children in various stages of youth, from birth until early adolescence was then a natural progression of subject matter. In 1992, Dumas painted The Dance. The title is rather deceptive as it brings to mind images of a joyful scene, of music and lightness. Instead, Dumas' painting illustrates children of various ethnicities in a bleak interior all facing a wall with their backs to the viewer. The pleasure of the dance is overwhelmed by the emptiness and melancholy of the environment in which they stand. The artist has been able to subvert the viewer's expectations. Yet even within this bleak interior, the colors of the children's clothes are bright and the children stand united. Here, the artist has unlocked a chain of associated thoughts as the intimacy of this scene draws an emotional response from the viewer; the feeling is one of hope and harmony.
The purity and candor of the work of Marlene Dumas seem like a reflection of her own self-awareness, as she strives for a direct method of exploring such essential themes as life, death, birth, sex, religion and love.
Marlene Dumas source material.