Marlene Dumas Interview

ArtInfo has interviewed Marlene Dumas in New York recently. The South African born painter, now living in Amsterdam, is famous for her sexually charged, often controversial figurative paintings. She also claims the title of most expensive painting to sell at auction, by a living female artist ($3.34 million for "The Teacher")
Anyway, I stole some quotes from the interview with Marlene Dumas, which can be found
here at ArtInfo (the
ArtInfo website is worth a visit for those that haven't been there yet.)
- The worst kind of artist is one who thinks they're so wonderful because they don't understand that there have been all these wonderful things done already, and that you exist in relation to that. Just because an artist from the past is dead doesn't mean the work is dead. Art is something that relates you to the past, and hopefully to the present as well.
Marlene Dumas - I see teaching as a very important thing, and not only because I teach them things, but also because we have a dialogue, and you see what you really want. You find things out.
Marlene Dumas - I get asked about the fact that I once said Jesus is the most erotic figure in art. I have to say, "No, I don't mean I get excited when I see a dead person, I'm saying that in the history of painting, he has been the main figure, and he's this naked man who struggles between spirituality and physicality. I didn't invent that. That is what he is supposed to stand for, and in other cultures you do not have that."
Marlene Dumas
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