Two Gods (2021)

If Immaculate (2003) took an intimate and humanly scaled look at the form of female human genitals, we see a very different approach in Dumas’s painting Two Gods (2021). In this work the figures of two towering phalluses emerged from a chance pour of paint that was initiated by the artist without any intention of what might be rendered. As the artist has described the process of the making of this painting, the forms of two monumental male organs slowly emerged as the paint moved vertically across her canvas as she lifted it off of the floor.

Chance and intention can sometimes be equal partners in the genesis of the figures in Dumas’s paintings. While the phallus was used as a talisman in ancient Greece and Rome, this work is open to many possible interpretations. The two figures could refer to a couple—lovers, rivals, or enemies.