Marlene Dumas | SCORE

MARLENE DUMAS

SCORE

Marlene Dumas

AUCTION IN CAPE TOWN

b.1953 South Africa

4 March 2021

SCORE

Modern & Contemporary Art

oil on canvas 122 x 122 cm

ZAR3 000 000 – 5 000 000 USD207 866 – 346 443 GBP149 515 – 249 192 EUR171 344 – 285 573 *exchange rates at 15 February 2021

ENQUIRIES & SALE CONTACT EMMA BEDFORD Senior Art Specialist | Director +27 83 391 7235 | emma@aspireart.net

www.aspireart.net

Marlene Dumas SCORE

Marlene Dumas’s Score is an extraordinary painting that forges youthful passion and the principles of Classical art into a dynamic statement about life, love and art. It was inspired by the central panel of Italian Renaissance artist, Andrea Mantegna’s The Adoration of the Magi, painted around 1460 and now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Dumas remembers painting this during her years at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, in response to an assignment by one of her lecturers1—perhaps the legendary teacher and artist, Stanley Pinker, whom she greatly admired. Instructed to choose a Classical painting for its composition and to transform it, Dumas turned to Renaissance master, Mantegna.

However, while retaining the original composition, Dumas has radically re-interpreted the original by changing the details. An erotic body is transposed into the holy cave, and where the Virgin was surrounded by angels, the artist has kissed the canvas with her own lips coated in fuchsia and red oil paint—an activity she likens to pilgrims kissing the feet of the saints.2 The title SCORE inscribed in red vibrates against its complementary green in the upper right, alluding to winning the game, sexual scoring or religious fervour. The use of lettering also acknowledges art historical precedents from Kurt Schwitters, the Cubists and Jasper Johns to Pop artists Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi.

1 2

Email to Emma Bedford, 26 October 2020.

Ibid.

Andrea Mantegna (Italian 1431–1506) The Adoration of the Magi circa 1460

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Marlene Dumas Previous sales

Dumas is widely regarded as one of the most influential painters working today. Her engagement with art history and her experiments with representations of the sexual body have drawn keen interest worldwide. Recent exhibitions have included paintings that range from monumental nude paintings to intimately scaled canvases that present details of bodily parts and facial features.

Dumas’s Love Lost sold for R7,283,200 in 2019 and Oktober 1973 for R7,055,600 in 2020 at Aspire Art Auctions. The current international auction high for the South African-born Dumas, who lives and works in Amsterdam, is GBP3.1 million, set at Sotheby’s London in July 2008, for The Visitor (1995).

Marlene Dumas Love Lost

Marlene Dumas Oktober 1973

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Marlene Dumas SCORE

Like Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray, the French psychoanalytic feminists of the 1970s and 1980s, who argued that openness of vision and multiplicity of experience are affiliated with the feminine, Marlene Dumas asserts her right to explore sexuality in open, multiple and revelatory ways. According to Claire Messud, ‘Transgressive, exuberant (and often funny) multiplicity is unquestionably central to Dumas’s work: in conversation she speaks repeatedly of “openness,” of seeking a fluidity both in her artistic process and in the images she seeks to create. Emphatically a figurative painter, Dumas is driven by gesture and serendipity alike, and by the confluence of diverse inspirations’.1 Questioning centuries of sexist representations, Dumas’s paintings challenge the objectification of women in painting by positioning women as the sexual subject—and not the object—autonomous, assertive and responsible for herself and her decisions. In 1973 this marked a radical departure in the history of art worldwide, and in the experience of women globally and in South Africa.

Her fearless re-interpretation of hallowed high art, her frank approach to female sexuality and bold use of brilliant colour in this early painting all contribute to making this a unique work in her oeuvre.

1

Messud, C. ‘Open’ in Marlene Dumas: Myths and Mortals (2018). New York: David Zwirner Books, p.106.

The Supermodel (1995)

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Naomi (1995)

Marlene Dumas at the University of Cape Town circa 1972 (photograph Prof. Neville Dubow)

Dumas’ skilful and compelling figurative paintings have captivated collectors across the globe. Her current auction record is GBP3.1 million (USD6.3 million)—around ZAR86 million—set at Sotheby’s London in July 2008, for The Visitor painted in 1995. The Teacher, produced in 1987, held the record at the time for the highest price fetched by a living female artist, having sold for GBP1.8 million (USD3.3 million) at Christie’s London in 2005.1 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/most-expensive-female-artists-817277

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The Visitor, 1995 | Sold for: GBP3 177 250 | Sotheby’s, London, June 2008

The Teacher (Sub A), 1987 | Sold for: GBP2 738 666 | Phillips, New York, November 2017

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MARLENE DUMAS IN THE MARKET Dumas has a steadily growing reputation and performance in the auction market. The following graphs demonstrate exactly how her work has performed at auction over the last decade.

CHANGE IN TOTAL SALES, NUMBER OF LOTS OFFERED AND SOLD Tracks the change in total value of sales as well as the total number of lots offered and sold annually. The chart shows whether the artist’s total sales are going up, and if so, whether this is because more works by the artist have been offered and sold or, because more high value artworks have been purchased.

$18M

$12M

$6M

$0 2012

Lots Sold

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Realised Auction Prices

1. Change in total sales, number of lots offered and sold The cementing of Dumas’ reputation at auction is evident when we compare the steep escalation of the number of lots offered and sold in 2016 and 2017, compared to the realised prices. In 2017 in particular, very few lots went unsold, in a year in which more lots by Dumas were sold overall, and more lots were sold at higher values. This indicates both a stronger supply to the auction market by collectors during the year, and a consistently high regard for her work.

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SOLD LOT PERFORMANCE AGAINST ESTIMATE Tracks the performance of lots against their estimate, indicating how many sold within, above or below this range, or remained unsold. This chart shows how the artist’s market performed compared to pre-sale expectations.

100% 75% 50% 25% 0% 2012

Not Sold

2013

Below

2014

Within

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Above

2. Sold lot performance against estimate This key auction metric demonstrates several market realities. Often the performance of single works selling for seven-figure prices obscures a rather different reality for the bulk of an artist’s work at auction.

Dumas’ performance in 2016 and 2017 has been the best overall in the last decade. 2016 saw the highest proportion of her work sell at prices above the auction estimate, a figure which stayed buoyant the following year. In addition, 2017 saw the lowest proportion of her work in the last ten years which went unsold. Seen along with the higher amount of work overall on offer in the year, this amounts to an increase in demand and value – essentially, a bull market for the artist.

Data sourced from MutualArt: www.mutualart.com

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