Marlene Dumas: Mourning Marsyas | Frith Street Gallery
“These works are heavy with the weight of a bad conscience, deceased lovers, past failures and present atrocities,” says Marlene Dumas, introducing this new London exhibition. “To paint is an apology for painting.”
Frith Street Gallery’s show notes allude to her “grief both personal and universal”. Dumas’ partner, brother and a very close friend have all died recently. Unsurprisingly, the works on show here are pretty much unremittingly unsettling and grim.
From left to right: Two Gods, 2021, Makapansgat Pebble, 2024 and Pareidolia, 2024
Most of the paintings are hard looks at faces. Distorted and fish lipped. sometimes obliterated by veils and masks. Monochrome. All staring right at us, somehow, uncomfortably close. Dumas reached back into Greek myth with the title work of the show: Marsyas was a satyr who dared challenge the sun god to a music competition; he was skinned alive as a consequence.
In an interview with the Guardian, given to mark the show’s opening, the artist seemed a bit troubled by this unremitting bleakness. She said: “I think I should stop moaning, because one has got little time left, and one’s not dead yet – and you should be glad you can still do something.”
She’s too harsh on herself, given that this moaning, this grief, produced work of this calibre. Regardless of the mood, these paintings are dextrous and distinctive, marked by the hand of someone who’s been doing this for decades, more than long enough to have experienced many losses, and to gain through these losses. Unlucky her - lucky us.
Marlene Dumas: Mourning Marsyas is at Frith Street Gallery (London). 20 September - 16 November 2024