Marlene Dumas: Myths & Mortals

Marlene Dumas' (born 1953) new works respond more than ever to the uncertainty and sensuality of the painting process itself.

Allowing the structure of the canvases and the materiality of the paint greater freedom to inform the development of her compositions, the artist has likened the creation of these works to the act of falling in love: an unpredictable and open-ended process that is as filled with awkwardness and anxiety as it is with bliss and discovery.

Myths & Mortals documents a selection of new paintings ranging from monumental nude figures to intimately scaled canvases that present details of bodily parts and facial features. Several nearly ten-foot-tall paintings focus on individual figures, including a number of male and female nudes and a seemingly solemn bride, whose expression is obscured behind a floor-length veil. The smaller-scale paintings--referred to by the artist as "erotic landscapes"--present a variety of fragmentary images: eyes, lips, nipples or lovers locked in a kiss.

Alongside these new paintings, Dumas presents an expansive series of 32 works on paper originally created for a Dutch translation of William Shakespeare's narrative poem "Venus & Adonis" (1593) by Hafid Bouazza. Myths & Mortals is accompanied by new scholarship on the artist by Claire Messud and a text by Dumas herself.

About the Author
Widely regarded as one of the most influential painters working today, Marlene Dumas has continuously explored the complex range of human emotions, often probing questions of gender, race, sexuality, and economic inequality. Through her focus on the human figure, Dumas merges socio-political themes with personal experience and art-historical antecedents to create a unique perspective on the most salient and controversial issues facing contemporary society. Her work consistently explores constructions of identity and the fluid distinctions between the public and the private.