남아공 출신 인물화가 마를렌 뒤마 루브르 입성

세상의 공포를 표현한 연작 '관계(Liaisons)' 9점 전시

 

Portrait de Marlene Dumas at the musée du Louvre, 2025. © Anton Corbijn

 

남아프리카공화국 출신 화가 마를렌 뒤마(Marlene Dumas, 72)가 루브르뮤지엄에 소장된 최초의 여성 현대미술가가 됐다. 루브르는 최근 영구소장품이 된 뒤마의 연작 '관계(Liaisons)' 9점을 드농관의 5대륙 갤러리(Galerie des Cinq Continents)에 전시했다. 이 작품은 오늘날 세상의 공포를 표현한 얼굴들을 묘사하고 있다. 뒤마는 루브르가 소장한 미켈란젤로의 조각 '죽어가는 노예'에서 영감을 받았다고 밝혔다. 

 

마를렌 뒤마는 1953년 케이프타운의 포도원을 운영하는 가정에서 태어났다. 케이프타운대에서 미술을 전공한 후 암스테르담 할렘의 아틀리에 '63에서 수학했다. 이어 암스테르담대에서 심리학을 전공했다. 1973년부터 그림을 그리기 시작해 자신의 정체성에 대한 정치적 고민과 성찰을 담았다.

 

뒤마의 인물화는 대상의 감정 상태를 전달하는데 중점을 둔다. 섹슈얼리티, 인종, 죄책감, 순수함, 폭력과 애정등 주제에 촛점을 맞춘다. 느슨한 얇은 물감층과 두꺼운 물간을 혼합하는 'wet-on-wet' 기법을 선호하며, 붓놀림으로 왜곡하면서도 강렬한 디테일을 묘사한다. 뒤마는 네덜란드 아티스트 얀 안드리세(Jan Andriesse, 71)와 사이에 딸을 두었다. 

 

뒤마 프로젝트는 루브르가 확장 중인 현대미술 프로그램의 일환이다. 지난해 루브르는 벨기에 출신 아티스트 뤽 튀이망(Luc Tuymans)의 작품을, 지난달엔 알제리 출신 사진작가 모하메드 부루사(Mohamed Bourouissa)의 비디오 작품을 구입했다. 

 

 

Liasons, Marlene Dumas at the musée du Louvre, 2025   © Anton Corbijn

 

The Louvre announces the entrance to its collections of Liaisons, a work by Marlene Dumas, commissioned for the Porte des Lions From December 2025

 

At the invitation of the Louvre, Marlene Dumas created Liaisons, a work consisting of nine paintings designed for the vast wall of the Porte des Lions atrium. The dimensions of the canvases match those of the marble bas-reliefs that once hung on this wall. Liaisons thus becomes part of the history of the Louvre and its museography. It also fits into the history of large-scale painted decorations, artistic interventions, and in situ commissions in museum spaces.

 

Marlene Dumas designed Liaisons for this space, located at the entrance to the Gallery of the Five Continents and the Louvre's painting department, close to the Grande Galerie. This proximity to renowned masterpieces of painting takes on particular significance given that the artist's work is deeply rooted in this medium, constantly combining sources and stories, much like the Musée du Louvre itself.

 

These “liaisons,” a title given by the artist based on a word that exists in both French and English, are those that link territories to one another and people to one another, reflecting a sensitive and emotional relationship to art as a fragment of humanity, with an implicit romantic resonance.

 

Liaisons demonstrates the artist's remarkable virtuosity and technique, which is both free and precise. Some of these faces are more abstract, others more gestural, and some reflect rather the traces of drawings. Each of the nine panels retains its individuality and assumes its unique status within the ensemble. Marlene Dumas conceived this series with the museum's spirit in mind: the Louvre as a place to encounter and be in the presence of works of art, to bring those in conversation.

 

Over the years, Marlene Dumas has continually cited, referenced, and incorporated works from the Louvre into her own art. Her creative process brings together images from her archive and shifts them into the pictorial realm; in making this work, she has set no limits on the type and the form of her inspirations from the collections. She works from pre-existing images and combines the texture of painting with a profound reflection on the history of art and forms.

 

Marlene Dumas is one of the greatest painters of our time. When we were thinking about a work for the entrance to the Portes des Lions, which is both the access to the Gallery of the Five Continents and the Department of Paintings, she seemed the obvious choice: she defends and illustrates the medium of painting like few others, and her work is conceived as a space for bringing together different sensibilities and origins. That is exactly what we aimed for to do with this redesigned space. We are proud of the outcome of this magnificent project. Marlene Dumas' work is a repertoire of ways of painting and drawing, as well as an invitation to confront our humanity" 

 

Laurence des Cars,

President-Director of the Louvre Museum