Supermodel

Drawing her iconography from multiple sources—photographs of her family and loved ones, images from newspapers and fashion magazines, as well as pornographic magazines, which had a particular influence on her work in the 1990s—Marlene Dumas interrogates the circulation and emotional charge of contemporary images. Life, in all its complexity, continually resurfaces in her paintings.
 

Supermodel, a lithograph whose title evokes a glamorous world, nevertheless radiates a diffuse melancholy. The work explores the complex links between beauty and celebrity and the underlying emotions of its figures, offering a reflection on the ambivalence of the modelling world, torn between fascination, exposure, and vulnerability.

This work is held in the Pinault Collection and was first presented at the Corps et Âmes exhibition at the Bourse de Commerce in 2025.