Broken White, 2006, 130x110cm, oil on canvas

Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi

It is disconcerting to meet an artist like Marlene Dumas in person. The South Africa-born 54-year-old painter is vibrant, funny and engaging, full of the qualities that people find endearing. But then you look at much of her work—brooding, sexual, macabre, with tones of pornography—and it’s hard to connect the reality dots.
Is she schizophrenic? Bipolar? Just plain strange? And yet it is precisely this disconnect between the artist and her work that is so captivating.

Dumas’ art is often referred to as “suggestive”—the works are not so explicit that they shock or deeply offend, but there’s enough going on in them to lead the viewer’s imagination furling forward. In this retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Dumas offers no answers. Themes like race, homosexuality and death seem fairly obvious, yet the skillful oils and watercolors are captivating for their mystery and power. As is the artist herself.

Based in Amsterdam since the ’70s, Dumas has gained considerable recognition during the past few years. At auctions in London and New York in 2004, prices for her work began to skyrocket, and she’s now represented by such well-known galleries as the Saatchi in London and Jack Tilton in New York. Ginza’s Gallery Koyanagi is showing a concurrent exhibition, “Light and Dark 1987-2007,” through June 16.

The MoT exhibition is Dumas’ largest in Japan so far. And not soon enough—her interest in the work of Japanese artists runs deep. Among these influences are the ukiyo-e artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-92), who is known for prints of gruesome scenes, ghosts and monsters. Dumas’ work with the images of famed erotic photographer Nobuyoshi Araki also reflect her interest in the erotic. Several of Araki’s prints are in the show, including one that Dumas used as a basis for her 2006 painting Broken White. Unlike Araki’s work, however, the painting is sensual and poetic, focusing only on the model’s face.

Leather Boots, 2000, 100x200cm, oil on canvas

Collection of the artist

The Human Tripod, 1988, 90x180cm, oil on canvas

Courtesy of Centraal Museum Utrecht

A viewer unaware of the original sexual context might assume the woman is sleeping or even dead. One stops, stares and wonders—a typical reaction to Dumas’ work. With soft and melting brushstrokes and ingenious use of color, she is an artist best experienced in person.

As Dumas often borrows partial imagery from other artists’ work, her portraits work well in group shows. She has been exhibited with Francis Bacon, whose paintings reflect a comparable darkness. In this show, babies and children appear often, but the figures are mostly distorted and frightening in their possibility. Dumas’ daughter Helena, now 17, is shown as a young girl in a 1992 portrait—precocious and intense.

A colorful 1984 work, possibly a self-portrait, drives home the disconnect between Dumas as the bright outward personality and Dumas as the dark artist. With a golden halo-light head of hair, piercing blue eyes and open soft mouth, the image is attractive and sensual. Why, then, the formidable title The Banality of Evil? This work confirms her mystery and reminds us that, indeed, people are not always what they seem.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, until July 1. Gallery Koyanagi, until June 16. See exhibition listings for details.

Got something to say about this article? Send a letter to the editor at letters@metropolis.co.jp.

Listen to the Metropolis Podcast, the coolest guide to what goes on this week in Tokyo.

Looking for international friends? Check Japan, Inc. Friends now - it's 100% free!