Marlene Dumas

(Born 1953 in Kuilsrivier, South Africa)

These works are not currently on view.




German Witch, 2000
Ink and acrylic on paper
90 ¼ x 35 ½ in. (229.2 x  90.2 cm)
Fractional and promised gift of Beth and
Anthony Terrana

German Witch, one of Marlene Dumas's signature large-scale watercolors, is rendered with a finely modulated monochromatic wash and tonal accents. The effect is both fluid and sensuous, alluding to the voluptuous fleshy nudes of her Flemish forebear Rubens. The image also has a mysterious side, as the figure turns to look over her shoulder at an unknown subject before flying away on a tiny broomstick. In 2001, the ICA presented an exhibition of Dumas' work One Hundred Models and Endless Rejects.

The Messengers, 1992
Oil on canvas
Four panels, each: 70 7/8 x 35 ½ in. (180 x 90.2 cm)
Extended loan from the collection of Barbara Lee

Dumas’s four-paneled painting is an arresting and dark meditation on childhood and innocence. The first three panels depict skeletons, their hands folded as if lying in a coffin and viewed from above, with three loosely-rendered toddlers surrounding the second skeleton. The final panel shows a nude child, a girl of maybe five years, painted in an almost monochromatic palette. While Dumas has said that her work is suggestive rather than narrative, The Messengers hints at the natural, though heartrending, progression of life.

Jule-die Vrou, 1985
Oil on canvas
49 ¼ x 41 ¼ in. (125 x 105 cm)
Loan from the collection of Barbara Lee

To create her portraits, Marlene Dumas uses a snapshot of a face as a visual source, then freely experiments with color and loose brushwork to render its features. Dumas, who has made hundreds of images of the human head, has an uncanny command of painterly gesture that is at once awkward and elegantly fluid.  Noting how large the human face appears in movies, Dumas often deliberately paints her heads much greater than life-sized, boosting their expressive power. In Jule-die Vrou the artist uses the color red with abandon. She gives great attention to the subject's eyes and the finger poised on her lip, conveying a suggestive mood of sensuality.

The Miss World Competition, 1983
Watercolor, ink, crayon, and pencil on paper
12 3/8 x 38 ½ in. (31.4 x 97.8 cm)
Extended loan from the collection of Barbara Lee

Michelle (The Lady Who Sells Champagne), 1998
Ink and acrylic on paper
49 x 27 in. (124.5 x 68.6 cm)
Extended loan from a Private Collection

These works on paper depict notions of feminine beauty across different eras and cultures, ranging from German art history to modern day beauty pageants. Painted with minimal indications of a setting or background, all attention is focused on the haunting figures drenched in color.


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