The Frith Street Gallery at 17-18 Golden Square in London's West End is holding an exhibition of paintings and drawings by South African-born Artist Marlene Dumas, inspired by Christ's words from the Cross: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, KJV). Five of the 18 pieces in the Marlene Dumas: Forsaken show depict the Crucified Christ in an expressionist-figurative style in varying colors and configurations. On entering the starkly modern showroom, you first see the large horizontal Crucifixion painting, Solo, where an emaciated, bluish white Jesus hangs small and high on an dark-toned T-shaped cross, a study in alienation against a featureless mottled white background. The color scheme is reversed in Forsaken, the signature image of the exhibition. The baroquely-contorted torso of Christ is sketched in thin black lines on white, nailed to a white cross, outlined in unsparing darkness. The Christian imagery is accompanied by portraits of the Late Pop Singer Amy Winehouse, Record Producer Phil Spector, now serving a prison term for murder, British Middle East Adventurer Lawrence of Arabia, and Saudi Terrorist Osama bin Laden and his son, Omar. As Dumas explains in the exhibition notes: "The existential doubt of whether what one believes in is true, and even worth dying for, is the basis of this show, be it religion, art or love." The fashionable tone of despair is curiously undercut by the last of the Crucifixion canvases. It shows Christ on a Y-shaped cross, somewhat in the style of a medieval wood carving. The warm, brown-flesh tones contrast with the cold color palette of the other images in the series. The title: Tree of Life. This exceptional exhibition of contemporary sacred art runs from October 14 to November 26. For more information on Marlene Dumas: Forsaken, visit: www.frithstreetgallery.com. (John Kohan)