Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas creates visual narratives from her personal archive of newspaper and magazine clippings and photographs of family and friends. In her transformation of this source material, the identities of her subjects become anonymous and open to new meanings.

Here a woman lies on her back; the viewer’s interpretation is guided by the inscription at the top of the sheet, which alludes to psychological turmoil and deceit. “White lies” typically connotes a harmless lie, but in the context of Dumas’s work, it may refer to race. Hovering above the woman, the text suggests an inner monologue, providing an example of the way the artist often blends the personal and the political.

Rather than working from life, Marlene Dumas finds her models within a large personal archive of photographs, newspaper and magazine clippings, and Polaroid images of family and friends. Cropping and distortion often hide the nature of these sources and the individuality of the figures portrayed, as in this image of a young woman lying on her side. Dumas has described her paintings as removing the constructed and artificial visual elements within her source images, thereby unlocking a concealed narrative. Here, the title White Lies and the text at the top of the page hint at psychic turmoil and sexual and racial violence, common themes within her work.