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Marlene Dumas

author

Marlene Dumas is a contemporary South African painter and artist based in the Netherlands. Born in Cape Town in 1953, she began her artistic practice in 1973, exploring themes of identity, race, sexuality, and political concerns through figurative portraiture. Her work often references a vast archive of source imagery, including Polaroids, journalistic photographs, and art-historical antecedents. Dumas is known for her loose brushstrokes and wet-on-wet technique that creates emotional distortion while maintaining striking detail. She has lived and worked in Amsterdam since 1976 and has exhibited internationally, gaining recognition as one of the most influential painters of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30]

Themes

  • identity
  • race
  • sexuality
  • portraiture
  • political concerns

Books

  1. Anton Corbijn / Marlene Dumas Strippinggirls 143
    Strippinggirls
    author
    €60.00

Works by Marlene Dumas

  • Strippinggirls 2000 · Theater Institut Nederland · book · English ISBN 9090137351 Collaborative work with Anton Corbijn.

Exhibitions

  • 2022 Women Painting Women Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth group

Awards

  • 2011 Rolf Schock Prize in Visual Arts

References

  1. The New York Times Magazine. 2008 link
  2. Channel24. 2011 link
  3. Cecile Johnson. Dumas, Marlene. Oxford Art Online. 2003 link
  4. Coline Milliard. Marlene Dumas Pushes the Limits of Portraiture. Artnet. 2015 link
  5. Who is Marlene Dumas?. Tate. 2020 link
  6. Christopher Bagley. W Magazine. 2008 link
  7. Carol Kino. Marlene Dumas's Number Comes Up. The New York Times. 2005 link
  8. Marlene Dumas CV. marlenedumas.nl link
  9. Great women artists. Phaidon. 2019
  10. Marlene Dumas Biography, Life & Quotes. The Art Story link
  11. Mary Horlock. Artist biography; Marlene Dumas. Tate Gallery. 1997 link
  12. Robert Ayers. Marlene Dumas. ARTINFO. 2006 link
  13. Marlene Dumas. Artnet link
  14. Kit Messham-Muir. 'You start with the image'; Marlene Dumas at the Tate Modern. The Conversation. 2015 link
  15. Magda Michalska. Intimate But Estranging Portraits By Marlene Dumas. DailyArtMagazine.com - Art History Stories. 2018 link
  16. Nina Siegal. A Radical Artist Takes a Startling Turn Toward Love. New York Times. 2018 link
  17. Wilson Tarbox. The 25 Best Works of the 21st Century. Frieze. 2025 link
  18. Biography. marlenedumas.nl link
  19. Women Painting Women. Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth link
  20. Marlene Dumas. The Museum of Modern Art link
  21. Marlene Dumas. Dordrechts Museum link
  22. Honorary degrees 2015. University of Antwerp. 2015 link
  23. Clément Ghys. Marlene Dumas becomes first contemporary woman artist in Louvre's permanent collection. Le Monde. 2025 link
  24. Cristina Ruiz. Marlene Dumas: Inside the studio of the world’s most expensive female painter. The Gentlewoman. 2014 link
  25. Sarah Thornton. Seven Days in the Art World. Granta Books. 2009 link
  26. Katya Kazakina. Zwirner Reports a $9 Million Marlene Dumas Sale. That Has People Talking For Two Reasons. Artnet News. 2023 link
  27. Karen K. Ho. Marlene Dumas Painting Sells for $13.6 M. at Christie's, a Record for a Living Female Artist. ART News. 2025 link
  28. Jack Guy. Marlene Dumas painting sets new record for living female artist. CNN. 2025 link
  29. Jo Lawson-Tancred. What to Know About Marlene Dumas, the Artist Who Just Set a Stunning Auction Record. ArtNet. 2025 link
  30. David Zwirner Books · Marlene Dumas. David Zwirner Books link