Throughout her life, Marlene Dumas has been preoccupied with her childhood and its influence on her identity: growing up as a white woman in South Africa at the time of apartheid, she feels a deep guilt and an urge to attack political oppression. Dumas studied first in Cape Town, then from the mid-1970s in the Netherlands, where she has lived ever since. Her minimalist figurative paintings are based on her own photographs or photographs from the press. She explores not only socially relevant issues, but also how significant events are documented and archived. Which aspects do journalists (un)consciously emphasize and which are ignored? Dumas' oil paintings and ink drawings have earned her a reputation as one of the most important contemporary artists.
Her list of solo and group exhibitions is long and spans museums from around the world. These include MoMA in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. In 1995, Dumas represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale together with Marijke van Warmerdam and Maria Roosen. Today, August 3, the painter turns 70.
Until January 28, 2024, those interested can view the group exhibition Capturing the Moment: Painting after Photography at the Tate Modern in London, in which Dumas is also represented.
