Marlene Dumas, 'Broken White', 2006
Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi
Marlene Dumas's first major exhibition in Japan opened last week at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT). The comprehensive exhibition presents the full range of Dumas's oeuvre through 150 works, including 10 new paintings. The title of the exhibition, 'Broken White', derives from Dumas's particular interest in Japan and in the work of Nobuyoshi Araki whose monochrome photograph served as the model for Dumas's own recent picture of the same name. Dumas has also spoken of the influence of a particular Ukiyo-e print by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka (1839-1792), which depicts the grotesque world of Eros.
Raised in apartheid South Africa in the 1960s and 70s, Dumas has since 1976 been based in Amsterdam. Her portraits take as their subject matter her lovers, daughter and friends, or images of people found in the media. These paintings are highly suggestive in character, and as well as enticing the viewer's own imagination, they also document our society in a disturbingly honest way. Her work is deeply influenced by photography and the cinema, and it has been said that 'in her depiction of real human emotion Dumas is restoring vitality to the painted image, as if by recombining the DNA of other media'.
'The Banality of Evil', 1984
'The Girlfriend', 1989
This exhibition brings together 'The Banality of Evil' (1984) and other examples of her brightly coloured portraits of the 1980s; her renowned group portrait series, 'Female' (1992-1993), consisting of 217 drawings; her nude portrait series; and works from her most recent series, 'Man Kind' (2002 - 2006), which deals with mistaken identities and fears concerning global terrorism.
'Scarlett', 2005
This exhibition at MOT will travel to the Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan in October 2007, and in 2008 to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
A fully illustrated catalogue is available in English and Japanese, co-published by the museums and Tankosha Publishing Co. Ltd, and featuring an exclusive lengthy interview with the artist.
Marlene Dumas: Broken White
Until 1 July 2007
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
4-1-1, Miyoshi, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0022 Japan
T: +81 (0)3 5245 4111
www.mot-art-museum.jp
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