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Albino

Soft pale tones depict a close up of African mandz head.

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  • Soft pale tones depict a close up of African mandz head.

Date:

1986

Artist:

Marlene Dumas
South African, born 1953

About this artwork

Since the early 1980s, Marlene Dumas has created paintings and drawings that raise provocative questions about gender, beauty, sexuality, race, and related conditions of oppression and violence. As a white woman who was raised under apartheid rule in South Africa, some of her strongest works tackle complicated themes of racial politics.

This representation of a black African albino suggests that race and color are social constructs that fail to correspond to identity. By choosing a subject whose very existence defies conventional racial categories, and by rendering his skin tone and hair color in a sickly green hue, Dumas pictorially destabilized the division between black and white.

Status

On View, Gallery 295

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Marlene Dumas

Title

Albino

Place

South Africa (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1986

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

130 × 110 cm (51 1/8 × 43 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Through prior gift of Mary and Leigh Block

Reference Number

2002.597

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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