Marlène Dumas is a contemporary artist of international stature. She exhibits in important museums in various countries, and has shown her work at authoritative events for contemporary art such as the Documenta and the Venice Biennale. This South African by birth has lived in the Netherlands since 1976. Her work is often autobiographical and full of contradictions: women, children, sexuality and tenderness, violence and racial struggle are common themes. Dumas works a lot on paper: watercolors and drawings of mainly figures and portraits, sketched smoothly and accurately, and often expressive, confrontational, raw and erotic.