A cheeky #TBT… South African artist Marlene Dumas “has made public displays of nudity one of her main artistic interests”, wrote Federico Florian in a feature contemplating the blurred distinctions between art and porn for Elephant Issue 34. This sensual work is one in a series of studies by Dumas based on mass-produced pornographic images, whereby “naked women masturbating or revealing their sex are sketched out through quick, liquid brushstrokes in a vibrant palette of grey, brown and blue.” This implementation of impressionistic brushwork and chromatic colour palettes recasts the world of porn in a gestural light, relying on suggestion over explicitness with distinctly sensual results.
