Dumas Legacy and Artwork
Marlene Dumas is a well-known contemporary African artist born in Cape Town, South Africa. She was born in 1953. She spent her childhood in the semi-rural regions of Kuils River. Between 1972 -1975, Dumas studied BA in Visual Arts at the Cape Town University. These years exposed her to a wide range of artists, influential thinkers, ideas, and practices such as body art, conceptual art, and performance. While in school, her photography lecturer encouraged her to looks at the artworks of different photographers, including Diane Arbus. Through this, Dumas discovered the power of images in connecting people to the present. Therefore, this influenced her in his journey to becoming a famous African artist. In 1976, Dumas moved to Haarlem, Netherlands to study at Ateliers 63, after winning a two-year scholarship. In the Netherlands, she devoted herself to painting. Dumas painted places or people from her collection of photographs or even those in magazines and newspapers. In the past, she mainly produced drawings, paintings, prints, installations, and collages. However, she now focuses on ink on paper and oil on canvas artwork.
Dumas Legacy and Artwork
Today, Dumas is recognized as an iconic and influential African artist of the 21st century. Since 1978, she has exhibited many of her portraits or works of art internationally, and she is one of the most admired artists in Hollands. Her works mainly represent various themes, including race and sexuality, tenderness and violence, as well as guilt and innocence. Some of her famous artworks include; The Neighbor, Wall Weeping, Jen, and Dorothy D-Lite, among others. In this case, I will talk about the ”Wall Weeping.”