Marlene Dumas, the open human soul

Among the exhibitions scheduled in Venice to coincide with the Art Biennale, the one dedicated to marlene dumas (Cape Town, 1953) is undoubtedly one of the most relevant. South African by birth, but based in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam, since 1976, her work has acquired the highest degree of international recognition. The essence is the paintingbut always unfolded in a dialogue of reception and re-elaboration with images technically produced in today's world: photographs, film supports and digital networks.

The title chosen by Marlene Dumas herself for the exhibition, open end (open ending), gives us a central key to what she seeks with her works. As he explains, he alludes to what is openly displayed in the rooms: “The viewer sees in my works what I painted, but does not yet know its meaning.. Where the work begins is not where it ends.

With this idea of meanings that do not close, that flow, Dumas presents us with the dynamic character of his paintings, always open to contact with the great variety of images that we experience today and with it also their diversity of meanings and allusions.

[Marlene Dumas, ghosts and bodies]

At the exhibition, organized by Caroline Bourgeois (curator of the Pinault Foundation in Paris) with the direct collaboration of Marlene Dumas, are exhibited 102 works dated from 1984 to 2021, distributed on two floors: first and second of the Palazzo Grassi, which allows an intense tour of its entire trayectory where we can appreciate its strength and intensity: Dumas' painting breathes and remains alive during the time of the technical massification of the images. Always with a critical sense, of introspection, of questioning about what we see.

Dumas' painting breathes and remains alive in the time of technical massification of images

In addition to the works on display, a 39-page medium format publication is also available free of charge, with small reproductions of all the works on display and texts about them, many of them written by Marlene Dumas. All pieces have the same register: ink on canvas and ink on paper, oscillating between large and small formats.

The two floors are articulated as sections. The first floor, as indicated, “is the realm of Myths and Mortals,” and nine sections are located on it: “1. Introduction: Desire”, “2. Rear parts”, “3. Disappointment”, “4. Private presence”, “5. Absence”, “6. Strangers”, “7. Taboo and voodoo”, “8. Venus and Adonis” and “9. Poisoning".

Continuing with the first, the second floor “is dedicated to Double Shots”, organized into ten sections: “10. Couples”, “11. Collaborations (between mother and daughter)”, “12. Children and evil”, “13. spleen [Bazo]”, “14. Masks and Mourning”, “15. Deities”, “16. Love Stories”, “17. Youth and War – Against the Wall”, “18. Art Stories” and “19. Going".

The two floors of Palazzo Grassi offer an intense tour of his entire career, in which we can appreciate his strength and intensity

This organization is important, because in it we can perceive the great thematic variety of motifs that circulate in Marlene Dumas's artistic work, and how she pictorial expressionismwhich for me is the concept that best defines him, is always established through a dialogue with inner thought and poetry, which gives great depth to each of his works.

With this conceptually elaborated map of terms, we see the ways and questions in which Dumas exposes his artistic work. From a formal point of view, what predominates are bodies, fundamentally human bodies, although there are also some figurations of animal bodies that convey a direct relationship with us and our stories. For example, a crucified frog, or also a horse's head and two boar's heads.

Our bodies are also in communication with objects, showing, for example, how we handle cell phones, specifically the iPhone. And equally with photographic, cinematographic and digital images, always in dialogue between drawing and painting.

Human faces, with face modulation, They are configured as a kind of gateway to knowing who we are. And from there, Dumas places us in a universe of mixtures: interracial or intersex, with the explicit desire to vindicate the importance of women with a feminist approach. As well as the equality of human groups and criticism of all racist positions.

Along with all this, the human relationship with the arts and thought is also central. Something that materializes with the explicit representation of the faces of a whole series of referential characters in letters and arts, with pictorial tributes to artists, and with the questioning about the origin and practice of painting. Ultimately, This is where Marlene Dumas leads us: to the need to know how to seeto open the view.

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