Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas, born in South Africa, is an artist whose art is focused on the real and surreal aspects of the human body. Although a painter, one can still appreciate the artistry of her pieces and relate it to aspects of our drawing class.




This picture really grabs the viewer's attention to the eyes. They are the lightest, and I think they have most detail in this painting. I like how Dumas used unconventional colors to create the face in this piece. Despite this, you are still able to see the different values in the hues she chose to use.




For this picture, Dumas again uses not the usual skin tones, but a greyish green and blue. I really like how she made the lips darker. This image reminds me of the exercise we did where, if the plane changed, we would draw it a different shade. The child's face seems to be like this.




I found this piece to be particularly interesting. The emotion I feel when looking at this is anger, sadness, resentment. I thought it was funny that I felt this and the title is "Intimate Relations". The red, orange, and yellow she chose really gives off those feelings. I also thought the grey face was an interesting touch.