Marlene Dumas

Considered one of the most influential artists on the contemporary scene, Marlene Dumas was born in 1953 in Cape Town, where she grew up and studied fine art during the brutal apartheid regime. In 1976 she moved to Europe to continue her studies and settled in Amsterdam, where she still lives and works today. If in the early years of her career she is known for her collages and texts, today Dumas works mainly with oil on canvas and ink on paper. Most of her production consists of portraits that represent suffering, ecstasy, fear, despair, but which are often also a commentary on the act of painting itself. A crucial moment in Dumas' work is the use of images from which she draws inspiration, from newspapers, magazines, film stills or polaroids taken personally.

The volume that accompanies the exhibition at Palazzo Grassi, designed by Roger Willems of Roma Publications in synergy with the artist, brings together critical texts by Caroline Bourgeois, Élisabeth Lebovici and Ulrich Loock, as well as all the images of the exhibited works and passages written by Dumas herself.

Exhibition: Marlene Dumas: open-end, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 27 March 2022–8 January 2023

Contributors: Caroline Bourgeois, Élisabeth Lebovici and Ulrich Loock