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Marlene Dumas Regrets Nothing … but Some Pictures

August 25, 2014 by Marion Maneker

Dumas, Missing Picasso

The novelist Claire Messud has one of those not-quite-a-profile, not-quite-a-think piece on Marlene Dumas that seems to rest heavily on one long, intoxicating visit between artist and novelist from which the novelist extrapolates, perhaps, too much:

In recent years, her paintings have sold at record prices for a living woman artist, the citation of which is a source of continual frustration to her. “I’d like to be remembered for something else,” […]

“With certain things I’ve done,” she said, “I don’t regret that I’ve done them, but you also have the thing as a painting itself, and later, when all other things are gone, you think, ‘I wonder, is this really an interesting painting?’ ” — she appraised a painting in her mind’s eye — “. . . and with the different curators, if they all agree that it’s okay, you distrust that, because they should see that it isn’t; but if you maybe think that something is actually good, and they don’t really react . . .” She shrugged. “Some artists, they say, are much more clear about what’s good and what’s bad in their own work. But I find it difficult.” […]

The example of “Twice,” the joint exhibition for which she painted “Missing Picasso,” is particularly telling. While Tuymans painted new works for the exhibition, Dumas, in some instances, returned to earlier, unfinished paintings, finding in the show’s theme the route to their completion. While Tuymans worked on his own, with an unwavering idea of his plan, Dumas consulted Tuymans for his opinion. When Tuymans suggested that they each show only six works, Dumas concurred, but marveled at his continence. “If I don’t work for long periods, then when I do, I go on till the end, and then sometimes I have too many works,” she told me. “Mostly I never think like that, I first see what I do, and then in the end I decide. But I thought, O.K., it was more efficient. It’s funny, these differences. You could also say he’s a man who knows himself well.” She emitted a roar of laughter.

Social Studies | Marlene Dumas (T Magazine)

Dumas, The Artist and His Model

Tilton's Testimony

April 22, 2010 by Marion Maneker

The acerb Charile Finch has more to say on Artnet.com about the Robins v. Zwirner trial and what’s behind dealer Jack Tilton’s testimony:

Tilton, one of the most savvy secondary market dealers whose SoHo gallery basement “boiler room” was a legend in the 1990s, has been courageously fighting Parkinson’s Disease. As one who often complained to me about being priced out of the contemporary Chinese art market, which Tilton originated, as well as expressing frustration with wealthier dealers who co-opted his artist discoveries (especially Marlene Dumas), Tilton appears to be throwing in the towel on a career of struggle and innovation, a medium-sized tuna biting back at the sharks, at last. […]

Tilton’s characterization of Dumas and her studio can only be described as tragic. Far from glorying in her rare success and the attentions of major museums, galleries and collectors, Dumas, in Tilton’s telling, appears obsessed with issues of her legacy, the destinations of her paintings (which she regards with the kind of fixation that Brecht’s Mother Courage dangerously bestowed upon her ill-fated children) and the sad idea that someone somewhere might be making a buck off her labors. I mean, where is the joy, Marlene?

Tilton at Windmills (Artnet.com)

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