Marlene Dumas Trivia Questions

Dumas is a painter, not a sculptor. Her medium is oil and ink on canvas, focusing on expressive, often unsettling portraits and figures.

Dumas was born in Cape Town in 1953. Her childhood under apartheid deeply influences her themes of identity, race, and vulnerability.

After studying in South Africa, Dumas moved to the Netherlands in 1976, where she studied at De Ateliers in Amsterdam and continues to live and work.

Dumas frequently works from Polaroids, magazine clippings, and news photos, emphasizing that her art interprets already mediated reality.

Dumas never painted Mandela’s official portrait. She is known for figurative works, but her subjects are often anonymous or from media images, not state commissions.

She did not win the Golden Lion at the 2017 Biennale. Her major exhibitions include the 1995 Venice Biennale and Documenta, but no Golden Lion.

'The Teacher (Sub A)' (1987) is based on a news photograph of a Palestinian boy during the First Intifada, a fact confirmed by Dumas in interviews.

'The Visitor' (1995) sold for £3.4 million at Sotheby’s in 2022, surprising many who associate Dumas with smaller-scale works and proving her market strength.