Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas confronts themes of politics, identity, love, and shame in her haunting oil and watercolor paintings. She’s often inspired by her experiences growing up in apartheid-era South Africa; Dumas has based compositions on photographs of friends and family, mass-media imagery of current events and celebrities, and art historical references. Her ghostly palette comprises mostly grays, browns, blues, and pinks, and her style features blurred brushstrokes and thin washes of color. Nude bodies are a frequent motif—sometimes they’re engaged in amorous acts that highlight the figures’ expression, contact, and emotion. Dumas has enjoyed solo exhibitions at Moderna Museet, Tate Modern, the Stedelijk Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, among other institutions. In 1995, she represented the Netherlands (her chosen home) at the Venice Biennale, and featured in the central pavilion in 2015. At auction, Dumas’s work has sold for seven-figure prices.