Cathy's Art Diary

Tender exhibition at Pallazo Grassi in Venice of work by Marlene Dumas. Spread over two floors, the work was sparsely hung which gave it room to breathe. Rather than labels you were given an excellent booklet with explanations of the work. At first glance the work looks rough and unfinished but the more you look at it the finer it becomes and, particularly the portraits, show great draftsmanship and insight. My favourites were a series of drawings of gay men who’d faced persecution from Oscar Wilde to Justin Fashenu. Each had a short explanation of their story. I also loved this picture of naked women from behind based on an old photograph of nudists. I felt they looked like they were having fun. Closes 8 January 2023  

Interesting display at the National Portrait Gallery of two pictures by Marlene Dumas. These were very modern portraits based on famous photographs of Oscar Wilde and his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas and shown in the 19th century room of the gallery. They were in marked contrast to the pictures by Winterhaler et al around them which I guess was part of the point, showing how Wilde and Bosie stood out from the society around them. However I must admit I didn’t really like them as pictures. Closes on 24 September 2017 Review Evening Standard    

Interesting exhibition at Tate Modern looking at the work of Marlene Dumas which I’d describe as expressionist portraits. I admit at first look I wasn’t too convinced by these pictures as they looked quite slap dash but on closer looking the draftsmanship was much more refined. I liked the fact that the room introductions were quotes by the artist which gave insight into her working methods.   I didn’t really connect to them emotionally. I liked the “Black Drawings” sequence which was a series of heard studies with different degrees of finish and abstraction. I also liked the picture of the artist’s daughter “The Painter” which is at first a rather menacing image of a child with what look like bloodied hands however on reading the commentary she had been painting in the garden! A lot of the work was based on found images from photographs and magazines and this technique reminded me of Sickert! Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Independent Evenin...