Marlene Dumas (B. 1953)
Provenance : Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp
Exhibited : Venice, Palazzetto Tito, Suspect, A Personal Exhibition of Marlene Dumas, June-September 2003.
Literature :
Notes : Marlene Dumas is best known for works that revolve around the most extreme and unavoidable aspects of life--sexuality, identity, death. Like these themes of life, her work is often uncomfortable; but like life itself, it challenges viewers to new levels of comfort. Painted in 2002, Long Life, is no exception, a masterful portrait of the universality of death.Raised in Apartheid-era South Africa, Dumas once said that growing up, she "didn't see anything." From artwork to movies, that which she did finally see was often censored, and usually a reproduction. Today, her inspiration is inclusive and all encompassing. It comes from images taken from personal Polaroids and books, graphic images from magazines and newspapers, and traces and hints of the work of those who came before her. Despite her inspiration, Dumas' work tends to de-familiarize the familiar.Long Life is part of a series of paintings Dumas created in 2002 which depicted the dead, showing "faces that cannot see because they are either blind, blindfolded, or dead" (Art 40 Basel, June 10 through June 14, 2009, David Zwirner Gallery). The painting confronts viewers with the head of a dead man. Although we know the basic fact about this man, that he is dead, like so many other works by Dumas, we are denied more extensive knowledge.Although Dumas is known for revealing and clever titles that often help viewers discern a story from her sparse canvases, in this case, Long Life does not even lead to the answer of the most basic question. We see the man, in hues of blue, purple and grey, but as Dumas said, since he is dead, we cannot really see him. We immediately imagine him as someone's father or brother, or as a teacher or doctor. But since we are given no other clues, our subject could just as easily be a petty thief or criminal. The realization of this fact not only creates a sense of uncertainty, but also of unease. We continue to question what we see.We know our subject's life is over and we know it has been a long one, but the questions between remained unanswered. The void is for us to fill. Perhaps, however, just like the gaps between the line of his eye and the curve of his lips and nose, the void will remain, just like the answers to our questions will remain as unobtainable as the fleeting moments of life.Explaining her interest in death, Dumas once said, "Painting's presence is not situated in the presentI am portraying the deadness of death, through a medium declared dead. The silence of the image versus the friction of (political) associations. I could not, would not see my dead figures like I do, if painting and I weren't haunted by the ghosts of art history, as it is. Holder's Valentine meets Holbein's Christ, David's Marat meets Gericault's dead men" (Art 40 Basel, New York, David Zwirner, pp. 22-23). Long Life seems to be particularly haunted by Charles Emile Champmartin's After Death, Study of a Severed Head. A student of Gericault, Champmartin's work also depicts the head of a dead man enveloped in flowing white sheets. Dumas' painted Long Life full with slow, watery strokes that lead to a feeling of temporality, saturated with the color that lead to a feeling of temporality; and the transcendent spirit of death. What is certain, however, is the universality of death.
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