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Marlene Dumas A German Artist At The Saatchi Gallery
By saatchi_gallery
Marlene Dumas presents a corruption of innocence. Her portrayal of a young child with its clothes lifted over its head immediately gives way to dark thoughts of sexuality and exploitation. The controversy isn't in the images Marlene Dumas paints, but in the way they're subverted by an implied knowingness, a blatant confrontation with a natural reality and its discomforts.Marlene Dumas makes paintings with no concept of the taboo. Racism, sexuality, religion, motherhood and childhood are all presented with chilling honesty. Undermining universally held belief systems, Dumas corrupts the very way images are negotiated. Stripped of the niceties of moral consolation, Marlene Dumas's work provokes unmitigated horror. She offers no comfort to the viewer, only an unnerving complicity and confusion between victims and oppressors.Removing the hierarchical value system of perception, Marlene Dumas presents unsettling truths as paintings because there is no other means to communicate their primal essence. Working from her own photos and pictures found in magazine and film archives, her canvases act as sociological studies. Subjects, already at one remove, are further physically and dispassionately distanced by her instinctive and disquieting painting style.

During the Helsinki Festival, Kunsthalle Helsinki will offer a unique opportunity to see works

by one of the hottest names in contemporary art, Marlene Dumas. The show presents an exceptionally broad retrospective of the artist's production from the 1970s up to the present. Born in South Africa in 1953, Dumas lives and works in the Netherlands. She is known for her masterful watercolours and subtle portraits. Her work enjoys an established status in major art museums and galleries and fetch unprecedented prices at auctions. Dumas' work is currently on exhibit at the main venue of the Venice Biennial. Exhibitions of her work have been relatively rare in the Nordic countries, and the present show is the largest of its kind here.Marlene Dumas's baby is almost repellent. Instead of an instant love affair, Dumas paints an alien encounter, the unnerving presence of an other', the realisation of an individual with a will and determination of his own. Marlene Dumas confronts the reality of motherhood, with all its natural and terrifying implications.

Find more about Marlene Dumas paintings, biography, solo exhibitions, group exhibitions and resource of Marlene Dumas artist. View Marlene Dumas artwork online at The Saatchi Gallery - London contemporary art gallery.Marlene Dumasz