Review
Marlene Dumas. open-end
March 27, 2022 – January 8, 2023
Palazzo Grassi, Venice
Like Ghosts. Dissolving, liquid. [Omega’s Eyes, 2018]
The paint is washed away, like waves, like wind. [Smoke, 2018; Intoxication, 2018]
So bold, so fragile. Like goddesses, like embryos. Who are these women? So cold, so cool.
[Painting is] Like Drugs. So dirty, so good. So subtle, so strong. Femininely violent/violently feminine.
Ice[d] kiss. [Octopusses]. Reference to Arnulf Rainer.
Sexualized subjects. [No] Phantasies. Nature, humans and animals.
A rose, a butt. A dove, a gutt.
A youth, a horse; a kiss, a boar.
Fuck. Me gentle. [But dark]
Photo: Marco Cappelletti with Filippo Rossi © Palazzo Grassi © Marlene Dumas
A bright bride. A dark slave. [Ghosts]
The Origin of the World. A mermaid, and her leviathan friend. The paint washes away, it flows.
Baselitz, but not upside down.
Colour, smoke, suffocation.
These are Icons.
Like cursed dolls; blue, red, orange eyes. Such a dirty view [sguardo]. Take her from the back. And the frog frontwise.
Dissolution. The feet, the bodies.
Good painting makes you want more. [And text, too.]
Open-end[ed].