Marlene Dumas, Losing (Her Meaning), 1988, oil on canvas, 19 11/16 x 27 9/16 in., Private Collection, courtesy of Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam,© 2008 Marlene DumasThe difference between the recording of an event and our memory of it is fraught with tension. Many of Marlene Dumas' paintings start as a photograph, or the subjective/objective view of a particular moment in time. The artist then infuses the image with subjective meaning as she distorts and plays with objects and people depicted in the frame, most often women, children and people of color. Her paintings are therefore palimpsests of a sort, replacing memory traces with painterly renderings that have a ruthless truth-telling to them, provoking gut reactions from its equally shocked and intrigued viewer.
Marlene Dumas, Jen, 2005, oil on canvas, 43 3/8 x 51 1/4 in., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, fractional and promised gift of Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis
一件事的记录和我们对它的记忆之间的差异充满了紧张。Marlene Dumas的许多作品都是从照片开始的，或者是对某一特定时刻的主观/客观的看法。当她扭曲和玩弄画框中描绘的对象和人物，通常是妇女、儿童和有色人种时，艺术家就会给画面注入主观意义。因此，她的画作在某种程度上是重画，用绘画的渲染代替了记忆的痕迹，以一种无情的实话实说，激发同样震惊和好奇的观者的本能反应。
Marlene Dumas, Measuring Your Own Grave, 2003, oil on canvas, 55 1/8 x 55 1/8 in.,private collectionOne has to wonder how much of this approach to painting is due to Dumas' South African origins, from which she fled during the age of apartheid. Does she remember what it was like? Does she owe some of these haunting, confrontational images to the experience of living in a country steeped in oppression and violence, a place where a person of non-color like herself might be made to answer for the actions of separate, unaffiliated forces? There is an undertone of guilt in the works of Marlene Dumas, as in Drunk, a self portrait of the artist nude, displayed alongside life-sized depictions of prostitutes exhibiting their wares in the red light district of her adopted home, Amsterdam. The only article of clothing on these bodies are a pair of shoes- the telltale accessory of a stripper. The artist seems to be drawing parallels between her own occupation and that of these filles de joie – both are there to please, excite or offend the viewer's senses. But where there is complicity there is also camaraderie – Dumas (who helped install the show) seems to take pleasure as well in placing herself alongside a series entitled Magdalena, where the mythic temptress comes in all shapes and sizes. This room seems to attest to the schizophrenic aspect of being a woman – one moment you're scorned, the next you're being sought after, next you're on your own.
Marlene Dumas, The Painter, 1994, oil on canvas, 78 3/4 x 39 1/4 in., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, fractional and promised gift of Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg
人们不禁要问，这种绘画方式在多大程度上要归功于杜马斯的南非血统，她在种族隔离时期逃离了南非。她还记得那是什么样子吗?她在这样一个充满压迫和暴力的国家生活过，在这个国家，一个像她这样的非肤色的人可能要为独立、独立的势力的行为负责吗?在马琳·杜马斯(Marlene Dumas)的作品中，有一种负罪感的意味，就像在《Drunk》中一样。这幅裸体自画像与真人大小的画作一起展出，画中妓女在她的第二故乡阿姆斯特丹的红灯区展出她们的商品。这些人身上唯一的衣服就是一双鞋子——脱衣舞娘的配件。这位艺术家似乎在她自己的职业和这些充满乐趣的事物之间找到了相似之处——两者都是为了取悦、刺激或冒犯观众的感官。不过，有同谋的地方也有同志情谊——大仲马(帮助安排了这部剧)似乎也很乐意把自己和一部名为玛格达莱娜(Magdalena)的电视剧放在一起，在这部剧里，那个神话般的诱惑女人有各种形状和身材。这个房间似乎证明了女性精神分裂的一面——前一刻你被嘲笑，下一刻你被追求，下一刻你就得靠自己了。
Marlene Dumas, The White Disease, 1985, oil on canvas, 49 3/16 x 41 5/16 in., Private Collection
