| Marlene Dumas presents a corruption of | | | | Subjects, already at one remove, are further |
| innocence. Her portrayal of a young child with its | | | | physically and dispassionately distanced by her |
| clothes lifted over its head immediately gives way | | | | instinctive and disquieting painting style. |
| to dark thoughts of sexuality and exploitation. The | | | | During the Helsinki Festival, Kunsthalle Helsinki will |
| controversy isn't in the images Marlene Dumas | | | | offer a unique opportunity to see works by one |
| paints, but in the way they're subverted by an | | | | of the hottest names in contemporary art, |
| implied knowingness, a blatant confrontation with a | | | | Marlene Dumas. The show presents an |
| natural reality and its discomforts.Marlene Dumas | | | | exceptionally broad retrospective of the artist's |
| makes paintings with no concept of the taboo. | | | | production from the 1970s up to the present. |
| Racism, sexuality, religion, motherhood and | | | | Born in South Africa in 1953, Dumas lives and |
| childhood are all presented with chilling honesty. | | | | works in the Netherlands. She is known for her |
| Undermining universally held belief systems, | | | | masterful watercolours and subtle portraits. Her |
| Dumas corrupts the very way images are | | | | work enjoys an established status in major art |
| negotiated. Stripped of the niceties of moral | | | | museums and galleries and fetch unprecedented |
| consolation, Marlene Dumas's work provokes | | | | prices at auctions. Dumas' work is currently on |
| unmitigated horror. She offers no comfort to the | | | | exhibit at the main venue of the Venice Biennial. |
| viewer, only an unnerving complicity and confusion | | | | Exhibitions of her work have been relatively rare |
| between victims and oppressors.Removing the | | | | in the Nordic countries, and the present show is |
| hierarchical value system of perception, Marlene | | | | the largest of its kind here.Marlene Dumas's baby |
| Dumas presents unsettling truths as paintings | | | | is almost repellent. Instead of an instant love |
| because there is no other means to communicate | | | | affair, Dumas paints an alien encounter, the |
| their primal essence. Working from her own | | | | unnerving presence of an ‘other', the |
| photos and pictures found in magazine and film | | | | realisation of an individual with a will and |
| archives, her canvases act as sociological studies. | | | | determination of his own. |