Gallery 98’s Marc H Miller visiting the Marlene Dumas exhibition at Palazzo Grassi. In front of Betrayal, 29 works, ink on paper, 1994. Photo by Katherine Jánszky Michaelsen.
Traveling is not easy these days but it was well-worth it to visit Venice and have the opportunity to view the exhibition Marlene Dumas, open-end at the Palazzo Grassi. For the last forty years Dumas has painted people, and seeing a selection of over one hundred of her portraits was a basic lesson about what it is to be human.
Dumas’ paintings present the full range of human diversity and express both her subjects’ and her own emotions. The viewer’s response also comes into play, and in this regard open-end is perfect for our unsettled times.
Gallery 98’s interest in Dumas stems in part from the generosity of her longtime gallerist Paul Andriesse, who has provided us with the rich collection of gallery invitation cards, posters and brochures now featured in our online exhibition Marlene Dumas: Fifty Years of Art Ephemera. A few additional items come courtesy of Michael Oblowitz, Dumas’s friend from art school in South Africa.
Marlene Dumas, The White Disease, oil on canvas, 1985, on display at the open-end exhibition at Palazzo Grassi.
