last year, “Jule, die Vrou”, a brightly coloured portrait of a woman painted by the South African artist Marlene Dumas in 1985, sold at Christie’s in New York for $1.2m. The buyer was initially anonymous, but a few months after the sale, the portrait appeared unexpectedly at The Triumph of Painting, an overview of leading contemporary painters at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Advertising mogul Charles Saatchi also showed two other recently auctioned works by Dumas: “Feathered Stola” and “Young Boys”. The latter sold at the New York auction house Phillips De Pury in May last year for close to $1m.Until 2002, only a few of Dumas’ paintings had appeared at auction, and those that did commanded less than $100,000. But when prices started rising three years ago, art experts were not surprised. Dumas had everything it took to become a darling of the auction market: the 52-year-old painter, living in Amsterdam since the 1970s, paints in a seemingly casual, accessible style; the themes which she addresses recurrently - identity, sexuality, ethnicity - are considered fashionable; her work has been part of a long list of prestigious shows, including the Venice Bienniale and the Documenta in Kassel. And when Saatchi, arguably the most influential collector in the world, takes an interest in an artist, this in itself prompts other collectors to start chasing her work. Prices may double, even triple.

Posted: 09|19|05 at 8:56 am. Filed under: UK News.