Marlene Dumas (born 3 August 1953) is a South African born artist and painter who lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. From 1972 to 1975 she studied visual arts at Cape Town University. She completed her studies in Haarlem in the Netherlands. She has lived and worked in Amsterdam since 1976. From 1978 she has exhibited internationally, and is one the most admired artists in the Netherlands. In 1995 her work was displayed at the Venice Biennale and the Tate Gallery in London. In the past Dumas produced paintings, collages, drawings, prints and installations. She works with mixed media, including newspaper, magazine cuttings, personal memorabilia, Flemish paintings and Polaroid photographs. Although most of her works could be categorized as portraits, they are not portraits in the traditional sense. Rather than representing an actual person, they represent an emotion. Important themes, central to Dumas’ work, include race, sexuality, guilt and innocence, violence and tenderness.
