MARLENE DUMAS | Both Sides

Monika Sprüth Gallery, Cologne
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2002

Cologne, Monika Sprüth Gallery, Tracey Moffat, Barbara Kruger, Marlene Dumas, April - July 2002

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is brighter and more vibrant and there are more yellow undertones visible in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals some light wear and faint rubbing in places along the extreme outer edges and corner tips. Extremely close inspection reveals a few minute and unobtrusive media accretions towards the centre of the upper right quadrant. Further very close inspection reveals a minute and unobtrusive nick to the right extreme edge, approximately 9cm from the upper right corner tip. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra violet light.
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“My best works are erotic displays of mental confusion” (Marlene Dumas cited in: Exh. Cat., Germany, Städtischen Galerie Ravensburg, Marlene Dumas: Wet Dreams, Watercolours, 2003, p. 16).  

Carnal and commanding, Both Sides is a testament to Marlene Dumas’ reclamation of the female form. Akin to other provocative paintings by the artist, Dumas breaks down the image of her subjects, they diffuse into fluid forms with her gestural use of paint. Her models command the canvas, their bodies almost bursting through the frame.

Growing up in the remote farming village of Kuils River, on the perimeters of Cape Town, Marlene Dumas had little contact with the outside world. Policed by the apartheid regime, the precocious young artist had minimum exposure to the media. Yet out of the lack of experience, Dumas manifested a fascination with the absolute extremities of life: from sex and death to aliens and the unknown. Upon graduation, Dumas relocated to Amsterdam, which proved to be a thriving hub of influence for her artistry. She delved into the ideology of the Amsterdam nightlife, immersing herself in the strip club culture of the pulsating red light district. Both Sides emerged out of this new fascination.

As the title of the present work implies, Dumas’ painting beholds a striking duality: the artist notes that her art is “situated between the pornographic tendency to reveal everything and the erotic inclination to hide what it’s all about” (Marlene Dumas cited in: Ilaria Bonacossa, Marlene Dumas, London 2009, p. 167). Similarly, us as the viewer have a dual role. We are at once subject to Dumas; her paintings confront and dominate us. Yet, we are also positioned as the voyeur, gazing at the intimate scenes with shock and fascination. Both Sides calls back to Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde (1866), but instead of Courbet’s objective view of the female body, Dumas incorporates the enigmatic gaze of her subject. She glares back at the viewer, daring them to looks at her body, projecting her agency. Dumas’ identity as a female artist painting naked women challenges the long-standing tradition of male artists depicting idealised notions of the feminine form. Not only does Dumas confront the viewer, but art history itself.