Luc Tuymans
September 17, 2009-January 3, 2010
Wexner Center for the Arts
FIRST U.S. RETROSPECTIVE OF THE WORK OF LUC TUYMANS DEBUTS
AT WEXNER CENTER IN SEPTEMBER, FOLLOWED BY 4-VENUE TOURExhibition Offers Unprecedented Overview of the Artist’s Career and Influence
 |
|
Luc Tuymans Der diagnostische Blick V (The Diagnostic View V), 1992 Oil on canvas 22 7/8 x 16 1/2 inches (58.1 x 41.9 cm) Private collection © Luc Tuymans Photo courtesy Zeno X Gallery |
After the Wexner Center presentation, Luc Tuymans will appear at SFMOMA (February 6 to May 2, 2010), the Dallas Museum of Art (June 6 to September 5, 2010), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (October 2, 2010 to January 9, 2011), and the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels (February 11 to May 8, 2011). The retrospective is co-curated by Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (and SFMOMA’s former Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture), and Helen Molesworth, Maisie K. and James R. Houghton Curator of Contemporary Art at the Harvard Art Museum (and former chief curator of exhibitions at the Wexner Center). The exhibition is accompanied by a definitive catalogue.
“Without question, the time is ripe for an in-depth retrospective of Tuymans's work in this country,” said Wexner Center Director Sherri Geldin. “We are thrilled to collaborate with SFMOMA on this exhibition, which is certain to reveal new insights into the creative, intellectual, and political forces that have propelled Luc’s unique and vastly influential body of work over the last 25 years.”
“Luc Tuymans is a crucial figure in contemporary art, yet he remains relatively unknown to broader audiences in the United States,” said SFMOMA Director Neal Benezra. “SFMOMA has a long track record of presenting important artists at a pivotal moment in their careers, and we are pleased to partner with the Wexner Center to bring this timely exhibition of Tuymans’s work to audiences nationwide.”
Luc Tuymans (b. 1958) is considered one of the most significant European painters of his generation, and has been an enduring influence on younger and emerging artists. Born and raised in Antwerp, where he lives and works, Tuymans is an inheritor to the vast tradition of Northern European painting. At the same time, as a child of the 1950s, his relationship to the medium is understandably influenced by photography, television, and cinema.
Interested in the lingering effects of World War II on the lives of Europeans, Tuymans explores issues of history and memory, as well as the relationship between photography and painting, using a muted palette to create canvases that are simultaneously withholding and disarmingly stark. Drawing on imagery from photography, television, and film, his distinctive compositions make ingenious use of cropping, close-ups, framing, and sequencing, offering fresh perspectives on the medium of painting, as well as larger cultural issues. Tuymans’s paintings might initially suggest relatively innocuous depictions of everyday life—whether interiors, landscapes, or figural representations—but there is almost always another meaning lurking beneath the surface. The artist’s more recent work approaches the postcolonial situation in the Congo and the dramatic turn of world events after 9/11; these series have led Tuymans to a sustained investigation of the realms of the pathological and the conspiratorial.
Filling the entirety of the Wexner Center’s galleries, Luc Tuymans highlights the fluid progression of the artist’s work. Because his career began with filmmaking, Tuymans’s approach to painting often draws from montage: one image links to another, and additional meaning is conveyed by the pieces’ adjacency. The retrospective reunites the paintings in groupings originally set out by the artist, thus restoring the intended dialogue among the works. The presentation also demonstrates that although Tuymans remains loyal to the medium of painting, his tendency to work in suites and at an ever-larger scale have made it imperative to consider him in the light of current installation and site-specific practices.
Tuymans’s deep engagement with the legacy of painting is also be emphasized in the exhibition. His signature brushwork and palette offer an innovative response to the great 20th-century schism between figurative representation and abstraction. At the same time, he treats all genres—including still life, landscape, and portraiture—with the same measured approach as a grand history painting. Indeed, Tuymans may be said to have reinvented history painting for the present day, using moments from the recent past to shed light on the fragile nature of memory. In using this traditional painting genre to depict contemporary political events, he also explores disengagement from the realities of the present.
The exhibition catalogue—coproduced by SFMOMA and the Wexner Center for the Arts, in association with Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.—is the most comprehensive volume on the artist to date, with original essays by co-curator Helen Molesworth; Bill Horrigan, director of the Media Arts Department at the Wexner Center for the Arts; Joseph Leo Koerner, professor of art history and architecture at Harvard University; and Ralph Rugoff, director of The Hayward at Southbank Centre in London; as well as a joint introduction by the co-curators. The extensive illustrations are accompanied by text entries that illuminate the painter’s primary subjects and themes. The catalogue ($60 hardcover and $35 softcover) are available in the Wexner Center Store.
Tuymans will be in conversation with scholar T.J. Clark November 10 at 7 pm at the Wexner Center.
EXHIBITION ORGANIZATION AND SUPPORT
Luc Tuymans is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, Columbus.
Lead support is generously provided by Bruce and Martha Atwater. Significant support is provided by Carla Emil/Rich Silverstein and by Flanders House, the new cultural forum for Flanders (Belgium) in the United States.
Accommodations in Columbus are provided by The Blackwell Inn.
All Wexner Center exhibitions and related events receive support from Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation and Wexner Center members, as well as Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, Nationwide Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council.
VISITOR INFORMATION
Luc Tuymans will be on view to the public September 17, 2009�January 3, 2010 at the Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N. High St. (at 15th Ave.) on the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus. Gallery hours are Tuesday�Wednesday and Sunday 11 am�6 pm; Thursday�Saturday 11 am�8 pm; closed Mondays. Walk-In Tours starting September 24 will be held Thursdays at 5 pm and Saturdays at 1 pm. The press preview and opening party will be held Wednesday, September 16. Admission to the galleries is $5; free for Wexner Center members, college students, and visitors 18 and under; free Thursdays from 4 to 8 pm and the first Sunday of the month. More info: wexarts.org or 614 292-3535.
Media contacts: Karen Simonian, Wexner Center, ksimonian@wexarts.org or 614.292.9923; Robyn Wise, SFMOMA, rwise@sfmoma.org or 415.357.4172.
[PDF version of the press release]
[2009-10 exhibition schedule (.doc)]
Get updates on the Luc Tuymans tour via Twitter
LOW-RESOLUTION PRESS IMAGE SELECTION
These images are provided exclusively to the press and may only be used for promotional purposes directly related to the corresponding Wexner Center for the Arts exhibition, or surrounding events. All reproductions must be accompanied by the proper credit line and copyright information provided below. Images must be reproduced as presented here and may not be distorted, mutilated, or cropped without permission. For hi-res images or more information please contact Karen Simonian (614) 292-9923 or KSimonian@wexarts.org or Tim Fulton (614) 688-3261 or TFulton@wexarts.org.Click each image to view.
1. |
2. |
|
Luc Tuymans Gaskamer (Gas Chamber) 1986 Oil on canvas 24 x 32 1/2 in. (61 x 82.5 cm) The Over Holland Collection. In honor of Caryl Chessman |
Luc Tuymans Body, 1990 Oil on canvas 19 1/4 x 13 3/4 in. (48.9 x 34.9 cm) Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent Private collection © Luc Tuymans Photo: Dirk Pauwels, courtesy the artist |
| 3. |
4. |
|
Luc Tuymans Der diagnostische Blick V (The Diagnostic View V), 1992 Oil on canvas 22 7/8 x 16 1/2 inches (58.1 x 41.9 cm) Private collection © Luc Tuymans Photo courtesy Zeno X Gallery |
Luc Tuymans The Heritage VI, 1996 Oil on canvas 20 7/8 x 17 1/8 in. (53 x 43.5 cm) Courtesy David Zwirner, New York © Luc Tuymans Photo courtesy David Zwirner, New York |
5. |
6. |
|
Luc Tuymans Orchid, 1998 Oil on canvas 39 1/4 x 30 1/4 in. (99.7 x 76.8 cm) Private collection, courtesy David Zwirner, New York © Luc Tuymans Photo: Felix Tirry, courtesy David Zwirner, New York |
Luc Tuymans W, 2008 Oil on canvas 74 x 47 in. (188 x 119.4 cm) Private collection, courtesy David Zwirner, New York © Luc Tuymans Photo courtesy David Zwirner, New York |
7. |
8. |
|
Luc Tuymans Chalk, 2000 Oil on canvas 28 1/2 x 24 1/4 in. (72.4 x 61.6 cm) Private collection, promised gift to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art ©2008 Luc Tuymans Photo: Ben Blackwell |
Luc Tuymans Ballroom Dancing, 2005 Oil on canvas 62 1/4 x 40 3/4 in. (158 x 103.5 x 4 cm) San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, fractional and promised gift of Shawn and Brook Byers © Luc Tuymans |
9. |
10. |
|
Luc Tuymans Ignatius van Loyola (Ignatius of Loyola), 2006 Oil on canvas 44 1/2 x 32 in. (113 x 81.3 cm) National Museum of Art, Osaka © Luc Tuymans Photo courtesy Zeno X Gallery |
Luc Tuymans Schwarzheide, 1986 Oil on canvas 23 5/8 x 27 5/8 in. (60 x 70 cm) Private collection © Luc Tuymans Photo courtesy David Zwirner, New York |
SELECT MEDIA COVERAGE
The New YorkerFlemish Master [Abstract] (10.12.09)
ELLE
25 Essential Happenings (09.09)
Elle Decor
Exhibition Highlight (09.09)
Vogue.com
Fall's Best Art Shows (09.09)
Columbus Dispatch
Open to interpretation (9.27.09)
Plain Dealer
Tuymans' work speaks volumes with a whisper (9.27.09)
Artinfo.com
Behind the Blur: Curator Helen Molesworth on Luc Tuymans (9.21.09)
New York Times
Risks and Retreats (9.9.09)
T Magazine
Seeing is Believing (9.9.09)
Columbus Dispatch
Unusual process defines paintings of Belgian talent (9.13.09)
artnet.com
Takeover Artist (9.16.09)
Art World
New Work: Luc Tuymans (4-5.09)
Wall Street Journal
Luc Tuymans Captures the Moment (7.03.09)
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT
LUC TUYMANS (THE EXHIBITION) AND LUC TUYMANS (THE ARTIST)
This retrospective “invites a verdict. Mine is a thumbs-up...It’s hard to tell how invested [Tuymans] is in his subjects, but he is plainly fascinated by the power of images to roil minds and hearts...He conveys a very dim view of the world today and scant trust in our capacity to cope with it. But, if you like painting enough, you will gamely tolerate the bitter flavor of this artist’s amazingly intoxicating brew.”—Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker (October 12, 2009)“[Luc Tuymans at the Wexner Center named one of] Fall’s Best Art Shows….This is the first U.S. retrospective of Belgian artist Luc Tuymans, who is among the world’s most accomplished and influential painters.”—Dodie Kazanjian, vogue.com
“Perhaps the most influential contemporary painter of the moment….[the exhibition] will burnish Mr. Tuymans’s credentials as a history painter.”—Karen Rosenberg, The New York Times (September 14, 2009, in a roundup of the big solo contemporary shows in the country this season)
“Remarkably potent…”—Christopher Knight on Tuymans’s work, in a preview of the exhibition in the Los Angeles Times’s fall art preview (September 14, 2009)
“After almost twenty-five years of mature production, Luc Tuymans’s reputation precedes him, and the contours of his artistic accomplishment are finally coming into focus…..As large as Tuymans looms in contemporary painting conversations, however, this seventy-work retrospective….is his first substantial American showing, but it promises to make up for lost time with unprecedented depth.”—Jordan Kantor, Artforum (September 2009)
“The contemporary art market may be in freefall, but Belgian painter Luc Tuymans, long regarded as one of the art world's brightest stars, is having a banner year….Mr. Tuymans combines a keen knowledge of the Flemish old masters with an instinctively cinematic approach to painting. Though he may apply his paint like an old master, he uses close-ups and framing devices with the skill of a great 20th-century film director.”—The Wall Street Journal (July 3, 2009)
“Tuymans’ work is proof that only paintings, in a time teeming with explicit photographs and films of war and terror, expose darker reality.”—Miranda Purves, ELLE magazine’s “ELLE 25” list of “essential happenings everyone will be talking about this fall” (September 2009)
“With his subdued colors; use of imagery from television, photography, and films; and subtle invocations of history and politics, Tuymans has reinvigorated representational painting.”—ELLE Décor (September 2009)
“[Tuymans] gets gravity, memory, and beauty to do a hypnotic dance of life and death.”—The Village Voice (November 9, 2005)
“The Belgian painter Luc Tuymans, who is often compared to [German painter Gerhard] Richter, is another artist whose deeper meanings are to be found not in individual paintings but in the conceptual spaces between them. It is a kind of collage aesthetic.”—Ken Johnson, The New York Times (December 9, 2005)
“At once seductive and sinister, nondescript and suggestive. . .”—Roberta Smith, The New York Times (May 9, 2003)
“Tuymans’s work is so paradigmatic and influential that it’s possible to speak of the Tuymans-esque as one would the Kafkaesque.”—The Village Voice (November 9, 2005)
“Emulated by scores of younger artists, Luc Tuymans has become arguably the most influential European painter of his generation.”—Artforum (November 2004)
“These days one can hardly walk into a gallery or art fair with an eye peeled for painting without seeing ‘The Tuymans Effect’—the profound, if sometimes ineffable, way in which the look, subjects, and even fundamental painterly approach of Tuymans’s work has saturated a large and increasingly significant territory.”—Artforum (November 2004)
“Tuymans makes us realize that there are no innocent images, period.”—Frieze (October 2006)
“Tuymans’s paintings are figurative, cool, drawn from an international collective memory, his palette broken, extracted from the media, film, TV, and Polaroids rather than nature.”—Vanity Fair (October 2006)
“I want to make people think. I want them to be confused and unnerved.”—Luc Tuymans (quoted in Art + Auction, September 2004)
“None of my art is truly abstract, everything is derived from reality….no imagination could overrule reality.”—Luc Tuymans (quoted in Art World magazine, April/May 2009)
“I try to create a feeling of distrust of the image—of every type of imagery, basically—because an image can always be manipulated.”—Luc Tuymans, in The Wall Street Journal (July 3, 2009)
