Young Boys - Lost Black

“Mirroring this exquisite series, demanding my attention, and almost tapping on my shoulder was yet another powerful series entitled, SERIES OF BOYS. As if lined-up for witnesses, or sinners arriving at their judgment, these boys look exposed, vulnerable, uncomfortably awaiting a result. These boys seemed just as bound by the paper, just as stained and undecided as the they are in society. Striking insecure poses of agony, Dumas captures their curiosities by applying cadaverous colors and exaggerated, limp lines to draw you in, challenging you to move on to the next room or to stay and judge. With suggestive titles like MILK WHITE, WET SUIT, COME ON, and GENDER BENDER, and after careful judgment, this particular series of knee-up studies seems to take on an attitude, one of a punk rock nature. Dumas believes that insanity is a painter’s melody, therefore, all female painters are mad. The insubordinate lines and disobedient colors sing out in a rebellious chorus of disregard and revolt. Dumas erects an army of insurgents, feminine and unarmed, yet unstoppable. Marching miles, stripped of their shields and bearing all their imperfect desires. Together they become an opus, lyrical lines of ink bound by nothing, blowing speakers and resonating bulletproof freedom. Turning up the volume in a forsaken, dead room and awakening every other work with blushing scores. Forcing an exorcism of their overbearing secrets, hidden behind dried media, and conducting the creation of a platform on which the exhibit could finally breathe.”

L. Harris, “Marlene Dumas, ‘Broken White’,” Whitehot Magazine, Number 4, Summer 2007.