'In a sense I understood: If something is too easy or cliché, you should take it out. But then I thought, 'Well, why can’t I make art about that?''
in the summer of 2017 in Amsterdam, where she has lived for the past 43 years. I had come to talk to her about contributing to an exhibition I curated celebrating the writer James Baldwin. For my show, Marlene expanded on her fascinating “Great Men” series, a dramatic group of ink portraits she began in 2014.
ALS: I remember that when I came to Amsterdam to visit you, we talked about how your mother was political in the sense of not treating people badly. Your mother didn’t permit racism in her home, which was a big thing for South Africa at that time. That’s not to be underestimated. Did you realize when you came to Holland how different your mother was?
DUMAS: It wasn’t high art. I could do cartoons, and I probably shouldn’t be too proud of them. I could do girls in bikinis—these sexytypes of cartoons. I could draw them very quickly. I never drew from life. The two books I grew up with were the Bible and the Brothers Grimm. They were all quite grim. I drew all these things I never really saw. I would draw women with these big evening dresses. It was part of these little stories in my head.
ALS: One of the paintings I love is “Protruding” [2018], which is of a nipple. I feel like you’re an artist who is discovering all the time. Even when you were growing up, you were seeing things in the world that would leave an impression.
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