United Europe, 2003/2005

The representation of people is central to Marlene Dumas' (born 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa; lives and works in Amsterdam) paintings and drawings. She works from photographic material culled from magazines or taken herself. "I use all the cheap tricks of attracting attention: eyes looking at you, sexual parts exposed or deliberately covered. The primitive pull of recognition. My artist is situated between the pornographic tendency to reveal everything and the erotic inclination to hide what it's all about."