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Schwarzheide, 2019 Secrets, 1990 (after the 1986 eponymous oil on canvas) oil on canvas

ATRIUM marble realized by 52 × 37 cm Fantini Mosaici, Milan Private collection.

960 × 960 cm MEZZANINE Courtesy Zeno X Gallery,

The title, Schwarzheide, comes from a German The closed-off, inward-looking face ofSecrets forced-labor camp. Some prisoners secretly drew is in fact that of Albert Speer, chief architect and cut their in strips to hide them of the Nazi party and the Reich’s Minister of and avoid them being confiscated. Later, the Armaments and War Production. The plural strips would be reassembled so the drawings form in the title indicates this is not an allegory could appear as whole and their message be of secret or silence but of the way a person’s understood. The that inspired this portrait shows or not the secrets, unspoken was made by Alfred Kantor, a camp things or denial that they behold under their survivor whose sketchbook was one of Luc strict and formal appearance. In this sense, this Tuymans’ main sources on this subject. portrait is very different from Himmler’s more The painted stripes evoke the deportees’ elusive one (Himmler, 1998). uniform and the black trees the woods around Because it is a close-up, almost an ID shot, the camps, which made them invisible to the contextualization of the scene is off frame local residents. Furthermore, the gesture of and hence nothing explains why the subject reassembling what was previously separated doesn’t want to see and shuts his eyes in front can be interpreted as a metaphor for all the lives of reality. However, nothing prevents viewers broken by war, which survivors must rebuild from projecting their own interpretation of with their memory and the few memories they what history taught us about Albert Speer’s are left with. life and involvement in Nazism, and what he Here, almost enlarged to the dimension of himself said in the two books he published after urban paving, the image appears as dissolved his release from prison in 1966, Inside the Third to the visitor who walks in. But symbolically, Reich and Spandau, the Secret Diaries. Indeed, as soon as one stands at the level of the closed Speer doesn’t mention once the ‘final solution’, face of Secrets, and even more so at the level which he always claimed not to have been aware of the balustrades, overlooking the atrium of even though he was one of Adolf Hitler’s of Palazzo Grassi it is reassembled again and closest aides. it delivers its message, thereby showing that MD distance and point of view are essential when looking at an artwork. Marc Donnadieu

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Mountains, 2016 oil on canvas 283 × 187,5 cm Pinault Collection FIRST FLOOR

When visitors first see this large painting existence of nature. The painting seems to alert from a distance, they see a mountain flanked us about our disconnection from nature and by a stretch of water from which bits of land the real risk of its cataclysmic depletion. emerge. No information is given about the place Caroline Bourgeois featured here: this arid land lined with metal- colored water under an evenly grey sky could be anywhere in the world. It’s only when getting closer that the viewer realizes it is a fake landscape. Luc Tuymans composed it with aluminum foil and soil, inspired, he said, by his observations of reflections on water during a train journey. The title Mountains contrasts with the image. Mountains are by nature colossal, testament to the phenomenal forces that shape the earth, but this mountain is nothing of the kind. It is not grand, nor solid as a rock; on the contrary, it looks as if it could crumble and it is partially hollowed. To the ‘mountains’ in plural of the title, which would signal some spectacular range such as the Alps or the Rockies, corresponds a poor, little, crumbling mountain set in a bare landscape devoid of life and direct light. “What is representation?” Luc Tuymans seems to ask by placing us in front of an image of an artificial arrangement made with next to nothing, a bit of aluminum foil and a few handfuls of dirt. Is it the representation of a mental landscape, a mountain that only exists in the artist’s mind? Is it then less real? No, answers Tuymans, since this frail mountain does exist in front of our eyes. Mountains is the opposite of the magnificent landscapes often shown in advertising, which reassure us, 21st century urbanites, about the Room 1

Body, 1990 oil on canvas 48,5 × 38,5 cm Collection S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent FIRST FLOOR

In order to make Body, Lucy Tuymans used The reality is practically the opposite, but here a paint he knew would change over time so lies the intentional ambiguity of Luc Tuymans’ that both the painting and the body represented works. The source image is indeed that of would age more or less at the same time. a naked rag doll, and the two horizontal black Similarly to Superstition, the body is only bars are in fact two zips through which the body sketched with a few brown paint strokes against can be stuffed with material in order to gain a backdrop of similar creamy colored shades. volume and firmness, in other words flesh But the artist has introduced in this single tone, and life... which is a priori dull and banal, an array MD of subtly colored nuances to give it density and texture. The whole painting oozes disturbing strangeness: the close up leaves out the head and legs and we don’t know whether this torso belongs to a little girl or a doll, whether it’s natural or artificial or living or dead, even though it seems to intensely challenge and question the viewer’s gaze. Similarly to the famous portrait “of Dorian Gray”, this body seems to be dissolving and in a process of devitalization to the point of becoming the shadow of itself in order to let the painting be embodied and vitalized, as expressed in the cracks that run across it. The work can also be seen as an expression of the relationship between a child and her comfort blanket, the transfer object par excellence, which preserves, carries and bears the traces of childhood so that the child can overcome it when she reaches adolescence. We speak of “” in painting, but this is almost the portrait of a “still skin”, a sensitive surface, layers of memories and solidified remembrances showing traces of violence or underlying post-traumatic scars.

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Pigeons, 2018 Technicolor, 2012 oil on canvas; triptych oil on canvas 94,5 × 67,8 cm 199 × 150,1 cm 97,8 × 90,5 cm Private collection. 95,7 × 95,4 cm Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London FIRST FLOOR Pinault Collection

In his youth, when holidaying in Brittany, Technicolor and Peaches were shown Luc Tuymans was fascinated by the large for the first time together with the dovecotes that once housed pigeons reared of the Allo! series at David Zwirner London, for hunting or slaughtering. He learned that in 2012. The source images for both works come owning such a building was a privilege from a 1913 advertising film that impressed of nobility, and that the dimensions and prestige Tuymans because of its blurriness and low of an estate would dictate its orientation and color saturation. However, what is immediately size. These historic dovecotes and pigeon racing striking is the peculiar way in which the artist in general were the starting point of numerous played with whites. They produce an almost works by Tuymans, including The Rumour ghostly halo effect in the whole painting that (2001), which already features three large pigeon is reminiscent of the light cast by a cinema eyes shown in close up. projector. Sometimes magnificent, other times dirty This effect recalls the theories of Sigmund and crippled by disease and decay, Luc Freud, the Austrian neurologist who invented Tuymans’ pigeons compose a strange, creepy psychoanalysis. As he was traveling in and threatening crowd, more artificial than train, Freud noticed as he was getting up an natural, like some secret society parallel “obnoxious, unpleasant and even creepy” man to ours, which symbolizes the shapes and standing in the corridor. In fact, it was his images of political, religious, social, medical own reflection in his carriage’s glass door. The and environmental power... incident will become an illustration of the In the 2018 version, the pigeon’s eye, which principle of unheimlich, which the philosopher is treated in bleak and mute tones and enlarged Marie Bonaparte translated as “disturbing almost monstrously, is definitely not anymore strangeness” and the psychoanalyst Jacques that of the animal that embellishes our squares Lacan as “extimacy”. This bunch of flowers and streets, but rather a mutating or genetically that we should perceive as close, familiar modified eye, the frosty, icy embodiment of a and intimate appears here as a strange still life, society that is permanently under surveillance. artificial and very disturbing. MD MD FIRST FLOOR MD lifestyle. and education of morality, areas the in particular in significantly, grown power has religious venues, tourism become have faithful, by the deserted churches, As religion? with relationship our to Isn’t it similar hallucination. a visual almost of becoming point away the to slips latter more the the it reproduces, perspective the and painting the enter could they feel they more the body. own And of their dimensions the to enlarged been has which book by this dizzied almost confused, and doubt in is mind viewer’s the But here, dimensions? three in Bible the is acathedral that said Hasn’t it been faith. their strengthen and faithful the inspire to meant representations painted and sculpted the by blurring architecture of religious character illusionist the Tuymans Luc inverts doing, so In the place. of magnificence and splendor the disrupting thus hues, fuzzy slightly white, greyish and yellow, earthy similar with treated are Both Church. titled and year previous the one painted another with compared be can painting church’s This nave. Baroque of the order the jarring painting, of the center the in visible clearly is fold mark The architecture. on religious of abook pages open Book The Pinault Collection Pinault ×212 cm 306 canvas on oil 3 Room The Book The reproduces in monumental format the the format monumental in reproduces , 2007 MD darkness. the world’sin adrift askiff like stability, reassuring and warm than rather fragility symbolic and material expresses of time, infinity the void or in spatial the in suspended almost seems which house, paper This value. emotional psychological, conveying latter the ahome, or as abuilding as “house” between distinguish languages Anglo-Saxon ahome. than space astorage more like looks that dwelling precarious anonymous, of an vision a twilight delivering painting, then photography first by transfigured was that model paper folded white, on asimple, based is Hut Hut Collection Pinault ×115,2 cm 123,2 canvas on oil 3 Room , 1998 7 Room 3

The Valley, 2007 oil on canvas 106,5 × 109,5 cm Pinault Collection FIRST FLOOR

The Valley is part of a series of works that If the piercing eyes of Pigeons gave the Luc Tuymans made in 2007 about the enduring impression that animals can have the power influence of religious power, in particular of observation of a surveillance camera, the that of the Jesuits, an order founded in 1539 by radiating gaze of The Valley’s hero invites us Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Francis Xavier that to question the human quality of human beings paved the way for the Counter-Reformation’s and their inevitable fate as “replicants.” rigor in the face of rising Protestantism. The MD stern, stubborn gaze of the portrayed child, his strict haircut and clothes signal harsh educational and social norms or quasi-military upbringing. It is in fact the face of Martin Stephens as David Zellaby, the hero of the filmThe Village of the Damned, which Luc Tuymans renamed The Valley (of the Doomed). Following pressure from religious groups, this project initiated in the United States only came to fruition in the UK in 1960, under the direction of Wolf Rilla. The script is a parable about mental control. All the residents of the village of Midwich become suddenly unconscious for several hours. Months later, twelve local women and girls give birth the same day to albino children with phosphorescent eyes. Precocious and able to communicate by telepathy they will quickly reveal hostile intentions. Gordon Zellaby, the father of one of them, tries to break their mental processes, which leads him to an inevitable death under the eyes of his own son. FIRST FLOOR MD (reality). proofs tangible and (memory) testimony (power), human the image media the between manipulation and decoys be can there or trial, investigation any in As frame. on off goes what and context the sources, the check to need the and images of all ambiguity inherent the Tuymans Luc highlights opaque, it mute and making while Theresienstadt from sent postcards one of the By reproducing died. prisoners of the most though even cared, showto they as a the Nazis way for detained were figures renowned internationally several that there It is outside. organized were visits sometimes and aschool was there authorized; was mail Postal privileges. granted be could prisoners There, solution. final of the implementation the in instrumental such as and camps, extermination and of concentration reality the about media foreign mislead to Czechoslovakia in Nazis the up by set camp transit a“model” Theresienstadt, at detainees that postcards the of one of model the Our New Quarters reproduces am Main. Gift of the artist the of Gift Main. am Frankfurt Kunst Moderne für Museum MMK cm ×120 80,5 canvas on oil 4 Room Our New Quarters . Inv. no. 1994/62 , 1986 manipulation and falsification. falsification. and manipulation of pathetic bearer the vestige, outdated an as by Tuymans represented thus He is nationalists. by Flemish shadows of literary realm the from exhumed novels who was regionalist and patriotic of famous author Claes, Ernest writer Flemish of the aportrait is this fact, In individual. andblood aflesh than rather ghost age-old of an more that is across comes that presence The or place. age any to belong not does it figure, reassuring and atutelary Treated as of agaze. absence the and contour facial and surface of the blurring intentional of the because character archetypal and generic almost an has Arts, of Fine Museum Nantes at the later and Heimat exhibition for the XGallery Zeno at Antwerp in 1995 in presented was which AFlemish Intellectual in portrayed man The MD Musée d’arts de Nantes de d’arts Musée 89,4 ×65,5cm canvas on oil 4 Room A Flemish Intellectual Flemish A , 1995

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Disenchantment, 1990 München [], 2012 oil on canvas oil on canvas 84,5 × 84,2 cm 158 × 79 cm Private collection Pinault Collection FIRST FLOOR

This image represents the top of a cardboard Luc Tuymans said about München that it “holds box where paint pistols, such as those used by a threat; you feel something is happening but the artist, are packaged. But our perception you don’t know exactly what.” The source image tells us something else: this image seems to is that of an imposing character wearing a mask, be of a target. A shooting target? A dart one? wrapped in a blue cape that covers the whole The viewer must decide. As often with Luc body, a figure of the carnival Tuymans, the image he’s interested in has parade in Munich, in 1933. various meanings. It also reminds of Jasper The contemporary building housing Munich’s Johns’ targets: indeed, the famous American Haus der Kunst was erected at the request painter frequently featured them. of Adolf Hitler in 1933, soon after he came The title, Disenchantment, also gives food to power, with the aim of making it one of for thought because it conjures up something the most important centers of Nazi cultural that is deceptive. Is it about the reality shown propaganda. This is where an exhibition was in the image? Or just a feeling? This image organized in 1937 about “degenerate art” is more abstract than figurative, as if something [Entartete Kunst], which drew more than was disappearing. two million visitors over a period of a month “I first saw an exhibition of Luc’s work and a half. Some 70 years later, Luc Tuymans in 1991, called Disenchantment. I couldn’t exhibited there a retrospective of his work, place these works in any of the ‘isms’ that were in 2008. around at the time. It wasn’t about a ‘return The theme of carnival, which is recurrent in to figuration’, a plea for ‘abstraction’ or a flirt Luc Tuymans’ oeuvre, is for him this ambivalent with ‘sensationalism’. It was actually about moment when collective rejoicing can turn into disenchantment. Not how it looks, because a devastating crowd, depending on how events disenchantment isn’t a thing, it’s about how unfold. München thus strives to perceive in it feels. It is about universal psychological truths an “innocent” character the premonition of the and at the same time it is about the specific inevitable. Would it be the same for every fact?... and limited meaning of images as images MD and confronting that understanding,” wrote artist about Luc Tuymans. Here, Luc Tuymans chose clear and simple lines, a very direct approach compared with other works he treated in a more singular manner, and this enhances the subject’s threatening aspect. CB FIRST FLOOR CB exists.” a work that but simply not It arepresentation is regression... of asort work, existential avery “It is artist. the said it, create to possible it is although beauty understand to is which impossible, something to testament is triptych This organs. bodily damaged and collapsed flowers of three the and andblood, of flesh reminds paintings three hue of all orange dark The bottom. to top from paintings three the across stretching aspine to akin is which middle, the in circle has a Each flowers. faded flattened, like look that shapes by three symbolized is body, which emotional and physical artist’s of the arepresentation thus is triptych The of Tuymans himself. that precisely and of aman height at the positioned it is Furthermore, vertical. it is inverted: is right, to left from of triptychs, reading horizontal usual the Here, oneself.” from excluded of being and of rage out of afeeling borne work was This body. of the interior shows the and body the with coincides that portrait self “emotional an work as this He described moods. and states of emotional representation for the interest of his Embitterment emblematic is Tuymans’ oeuvre, Luc in triptych A major Embitterment Private collection Private 39,4 cm ×41,9 39,4 cm ×41,3 cm ×41,3 38,7 ;triptych canvas on oil 4 Room , 1991 one day. just in them completing always of painting, kind for this technique loose rather and quick same the uses He often characters. or historical acts violent on extremely of paintings series Sagawa Issei despair. and madness of full expressive, remarkably are but they painting, of the rest the as fast as painted were eyes The character. of the look hallucinated the striking: particularly is one feature blurry, are background the and shirt the hat, the Although recognizable. barely face the render which strokes, paint applied quickly large, with images) of video (a photograph image of the blurriness the mirrors technique painting The face. of his side on each ashadow casts and for him large too is that hat acolonial wears Sagawa Here, exhibition. the in shown also Sagawa, is Issei which 2012, particular in one, that to prior theme on this paintings other two TuymansLuc painted unrecognizable. him renders that a mask he’s and wearing shown crime, his he committed before taken was picture original The . to extradited being before in jail in years 1981. several spent in Sagawa Sorbonne, at the student fellow afemale cannibalized and murdered who had aJapanese Sagawa, on Issei of adocumentary smartphone his with he took on apicture painting this TuymansLuc based CB Issei Sagawa 74,3 ×81,9 cm canvas on oil 5 Room forms part of Luc Tuymans’ of Luc part forms , 2014 2014 11 FIRST FLOOR as wood. But given the famous images of Jean- images famous the But given wood. as such raw materials, of its and villa of the style architectural simple of the remind colors The film. the in experience Piccoli and Bardot nowhere that to love leading extinguished of the ametaphor perhaps nowhere, to awindow and fire a without fireplace amassive only views, or spectacular no luxury is there contrary, the on Here, landscape. Mediterranean enchanting on an opens window each reality, in where, villa Malaparte’s in we are us tells nothing title, the from Apart behind. window the notice also but we afireplace, we see painting, this In Tuymans. it,” do said architect an had he actually when villa his built personally had he who claimed writer Italian megalomaniac the Malaparte, Curzio and Swiss, is Godard though even flag, France’s three-color sculptures; Greek the with mythology film: this in elements many so are “There film. the about of contempt than feeling the more about is painting his he said though even made ever films greatest of the Contempt Tuymans Luc considers lovers, movie many Like Moravia’s novel disprezzo. Il eponymous Albert by inspired afilm Piccoli, Michel and Bardot Brigitte with villa, spectacular this in shot Contempt (1963) Godard Jean-Luc Grassi. at Palazzo exhibition of our title the also is The Skin The wrote and he lived where 1943, 1938 and between Libera Adalberto by architect of Capri island (1898-1957) on the Malaparte built had Curzio writer Italian that villa the i.e. house, of acult shot aunique is painting this in image The Le Mépris Le Collection of Mimi Haas Mimi of Collection cm ×142,6 112,4 canvas on oil 5 Room [ in French] one in Mépris be Le to [ in Italian, 1949], which Italian, pelle in La [ Contempt ], 2015 architect, the painting is deceptive. deceptive. is painting the architect, the and writer by the sought as modernist and legendary both is which house, of this history singular the and film Godard’s Luc CB FIRST FLOOR CB tender.” when it’sreally effective only is torture For me, torture. it is sense, this In somehow skewed. it is but nostalgia, and melancholy some is there say time. could We real the from different is time painted the painting, “floats”.“In and passes as it time on areflection also is triptych The mirror. aged of an aspect the takes which matter, dirty canal’s the of areflection work like is palette the and subjective highly are They work. his in case the often is which feel, have acinematic polaroid a with first Tuymans took images The town. the about astory tell afence) also lamp, the water car, on street a (a reflections the that officials municipal convince to managed artist The viewers. shock to enough not realistic are paintings three the though even municipality, for the of pride but asource anything is that atheme proposes Tuymans Luc thus cans. beverage floating and surface on the of algae alot with fetid, and murky, littered is water whose town’s the in canals, inspiration found Tuymans Town Luc the ornate to Hall. tapestry of a of Ridderkerk municipality Dutch by the acommission was point starting The materials. different with here time, to time from he does something artist, by the revisited worked on and been already has that matter asubject is Here Collezione Prada, Milan Prada, Collezione cm 235,5 ×232,5 III: cm 237 ×232,5 II: 235,5I: ×235,5 cm triptych canvas; on oil 5 Room Murky Water Murky , 2015 CB Birds ofBirds aFeather exhibition his in who Tuymans featured painter (1756-1823), Raeburn portrait Henry amaster Sir painter Scottish the here quotes artist The purposes. for documentary were they though even photographs, original the in than reality this feel and see better can viewers fact, In images. these in real nothing is there since real than more abstract case any in taxidermy, or even clones, to akin thus are birds color. These adifferent them give to engineered genetically be can how they things, other among explains, that on canaries of abook by photographs inspired are paintings Both of bird. types two on these information genetic the gowith that names the are paintings, Isabel portraits, which thus become like vanities? vanities? like become thus which portraits, traditional from adistance taking subject, dead a to life how bring is to subject the Maybe birds. unreal of the portraits the real renders and mannerism away Raeburn’s from turns artist the portrait, of the theme the tackling But here, University. of its collection taxidermy for the known is which Edinburgh, particular in and Scotland to refers He also portrayed. subject the to life bring could eyes the if as subject, of the eyes the particular in and portrait of the question the with deals artist the paintings, two these In 2015. in Edinburgh in Gallery at Talbot Rice Private collection Private 147,5 ×125 cm canvas on oil 6 Room Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London New Zwirner, David Courtesy collection. Private cm ×124 144,9 canvas on oil Orange Red Brown Isabel the titles of these of these titles Orange the and Red Brown, , 2015 , that he presented he presented , that , 2015 13 Room 6 Room 6

Morning Sun, 2011 Me, 2011 oil on canvas oil on canvas 233,1 × 259,4 cm 110,4 × 136,3 cm Art Foundation The Broad Art Foundation FIRST FLOOR

In 2013, on the occasion of his tenth exhibition Me is a very rare self portrait where Luc at David Zwirner New York, titled The Summer Tuymans is perfectly recognizable. But if the is Over, Luc Tuymans presented a series of environment refers directly to a domestic space, paintings about his personal environment, from the framing, the pose and above all the fixed a self portrait to a view of his garden and a detail glance denote the idea of screen as if it was, of his leg as he is sat in an armchair in his living for example, Luc Tuymans as seen by his room. Morning Sun shows the rectangular computer camera, an effect that is enhanced window of a building situated in front of his by multiple light reflections on his glasses old house. However, through a slight shift in that obliterate his gaze. perspective, it is not so much the window that The “glasses” motif in Luc Tuymans’ oeuvre seems to be the subject of the painting than its was the theme of an exhibition in Antwerp, combination of frames and the shattered glass in 2016, and in London, in 2017. Across his outlining a sort of black sun appearing between work, spectacles have played the role of total the fragments of the broken window, which transparency, magnifying glass or, on the reflect the pale blue light of dawn. contrary, perfect mirror, protective opacity, It has often been said that a painting is a and impenetrable mask. With their shimmering, window open to the world, but here it opens reflection and shine effects, they also open the on nothing but itself: a sophisticated work space of representation to the off-frame of a about what a painting is beyond the mere scene, a situation or a context within which the representation of reality. Morning Sun seems viewer is symbolically placed by projection. to signal a derelict reality behind things but In front of Me, are we this computer camera, also behind the painting, its chassis and raw this camera lens that observes, spies on canvas showing only a few traces of paint. or monitors him? And what image or secret Furthermore, between the idea of a summer would we like to have, to know or to keep that is ending—The Summer is Over—and that about an artist at work? of a day that is breaking—Morning Sun—a MD feeling of sweet melancholy appears, a moment of withheld poetry, of a true sense of the nature of things... or of beings? MD Room 7 Room 7

My Leg, 2011 Rearview Mirror, 1986 oil on canvas oil on canvas 192,2 × 142,2 cm 68 × 190 cm Private collection. Private collection Courtesy Studio Luc Tuymans, Antwerp FIRST FLOOR

My Leg shows part of the artist’s leg as he With a format akin to a panoramic screen, the was sitting in the same armchair as in the subject of Rearview Mirror is clearly announced painting Me. Both paintings were actually in the title. But this rearview mirror seems presented together, in 2013 in New York for suspended by itself against a monochromatic, the exhibition The Summer is Over. They are dirty yellow backdrop, without any other based on photographs taken by Luc Tuymans’ element telling us whether we are in a car or partner—the artist —, which if it’s driven by anyone. We can see the reflection are poor, without object or intention, as are of what seems to be a road, but it is equally snapshots taken by mistake or chance. However, undefined, without any landscape around. the picture on which Me is based is cold, This rearview mirror invites us to look behind frontal and almost impersonal, whereas that us. Its wide-screen format and the title in of My Leg seems extremely sophisticated in English suggest we are in an American car, its composition, the intricate combination of the symbol par excellence of our consumer diagonals, its muted lights and subtle textures. society. What it shows doesn’t look at all like Tuymans’ painting underlines all its potential an American road: everything is black around and wealth of effects, and the image therefore it and the road is crossed by thick black lines seems to be generated by the very matter of that remind of a railway track. Could it be the painting. a railway line to the end of the night? Like MD deportation trains during World War II? Luc Tuymans has worked a lot on Nazism and this painting, made in 1986 when WWII was still very present in the public debate, seems to be taking a look at this past from the point of view of American modernity. Beyond this, it questions the act of looking, what one sees or refuses to see, and the power of images. It also reflects, literally and figuratively, on the condition of all images, which are by nature always seen in retrospect since they are always the memory of a moment. In so doing, the artist takes us to a zone situated between reality and the representation of reality as proposed in this painting. CB

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Baroque, 2017 Magic, 2007 oil on canvas oil on canvas 99,5 × 66,8 cm 122,6 × 165,7 cm Pinault Collection Private collection, Brussels FIRST FLOOR

The title of this painting refers to the artistic Magic was first presented jointly withTurtle movement that appeared at the end of the and Simulation in 2008 in New York in an Renaissance and sought to represent passions exhibition titled Forever, The Management and emotions, in particular religious, of Magic. This painting focuses on a character as opposed to the calmer rationality of the popularized as “The Dream Collector” who previous period. It is an era in which Tuymans collects ideas and dreams in order to create is very interested. He curated an exhibition on new inventions. Here, its image is paradoxically the Renaissance (titled Sanguine/Bloedrood), dissolved within a pictorial matter where all which was presented in the summer of 2018 at blacks and whites are abolished and replaced M HKA in his hometown of Antwerp—a major by almost nondescript blue and brown hues. center of Flemish Baroque, notably through He also seems to be almost forgotten, if not —and after that at the Prada abandoned, in the midst of other nondescript Foundation in Milan. Besides its lyricism and objects that do not have any real nature. flamboyant quality, the artist is also interested In order to create such peculiar effects, Luc in Baroque because it was the first artistic Tuymans used for the first time clear indigo movement that could truly be qualified as global hues that produce specific contrasts akin to as it encompassed all the arts and spread across an old black & white movie that would have European borders. been colored by thought, memory or dream. Lucy Tuymans painted Baroque when he was This work thus expresses in an original way preparing that exhibition. The painting is the passing of time and the disappearance of based on a photograph taken by the artist precious childhood memories, whether fond with his smartphone of a religious sculpture or scary. from the Spanish Baroque. What is striking MD is the contrast between the Baroque announced in the title and what is represented: there is no lyricism in this scene, no overflow of colors, no representation of the body, of passion and death..., nothing but a close up of a face sculpted in wood some four centuries ago and above all, a look. Luc Tuymans uses the language of cinema—a Bergmanian close up—and the painted image of a black & white/sepia digital image to represent the very essence of Baroque: the pain and depth of soul reflected through these wide, dark eyes. CB FIRST FLOOR reflections. reflections. disenchanted and opaque of fuzzy, aseries as dream American of the vision grand the casts Tuymans Luc here, exhibited works the all In bulbs. light bright than stains sloppy, whitish dull, like more look that dots white with represented are that lights tiny with lined Parade”, Electrical Street “Main famous of the boats of the one it is for them: large too is that a subject perceive to struggles and wanders viewer The one go. in grasp cannot viewer the which painting, of the size monumental by the enhanced is This impression. ghostly aparticularly gives and of greys array an with treated is painting this colorful, and joyful bright, is everything where universe, Walt of the Disney representations official to Tomorrow Contrary (EPCOT). of Community Prototype Experimental the particular in productions, various company’s Walt the to Disney dedicated MD titled Turtle Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London New Zwirner, David Courtesy collection. Private cm ×509 368 canvas on oil 8 Room Turtle Forever, The Management The Forever, of Magic was shown in 2008 in an exhibition exhibition an in 2008 in shown was , 2007 2007

blinding the subject being photographed. photographed. being subject the blinding by suddenly taken be only can image any symbols: are its flash of the violence power and the Here, obtain. they image the in contained memory the power and photographer’s the between remains ambivalence the ones, analog old the like not do function cameras digital contemporary Even if capture... to take, to snap, to trigger, to weaponry: and of war that to analog is of photography vocabulary the emotion, or an experience, an a moment, of aperson, atrace away keep to as considered commonly is photographs taking although Indeed, of this. interpretation a contemporary of power,” Instant Tuymans. Luc be could said question the also and of memory idea the towards my work geared start, “From the ordinary. nevertheless is that scene a of unreality the to add color orange of asingle, use the shut and almost eyes The hold it. that hands the and camera the on both light sheds flash instantaneous The aflash. with a photograph Instant MD Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London New Zwirner, David Courtesy collection. Private 103,5 ×70 cm canvas on oil 8 Room , Instant shows a woman as she is taking taking is she as shows awoman 2009 17 FIRST FLOOR is, still, life. life. still, is, life Still reborn. being of life color, density and the water, substance and fruits oneself, rethink to again, grow to what, no matter going keep to determination or human natural the settled: has cloud of dust the once catastrophe, the after bad, and good beyond left is but what rubbles, the under buried bodies or the buildings, smashed two the explosion, show not to the is point The breath. and emptiness air, space, of time, depth the from slowly emerges that aphysicality but with representation realistic not through presence its states fruit act?—each terrorist of the enormity or the facts, impossible city, or the American of an scale the enlarged—on considerably and painting of the heart the in suspended almost line, horizontal tangible on abarely Positioned how treated. it is but matter subject not the is counts what that words other In manner. or alarming mysterious interrogative, an in viewer the it toward turns but such as afact to not respond it does that perspective, it into puts but rather reality not illustrate does art that by highlighting theme this wrong-foots of expectations, alot raised Tuymans’ which work, Luc of 9/11. tragedy the about artworks many featured (2002), which Kassel in 11 at shown first It was watercolors. Cézanne’s of manner the in treated background the in water of clear ajar and fruits with life astill intimate: particularly is subject the although paintings monumental Life Still Pinault Collection Pinault cm 347,8 ×502,5 canvas on oil 9 Room Still Life, Still is among Luc Tuymans’ most Tuymans’ most Luc among is 2002 can also mean that there there that mean also can madness. madness. of human the face in sharing for offered meal first the away, is In this resilient. is and it resists that contrary but on the fragile, and ephemeral is life that it doesn’t signal vanity: inverted an like is painting the sense, this In MD FIRST FLOOR MD situation. current our in case the is as thinking, or political intellectual in of doubt importance the reflects better that style heavier for Tuymans athicker, opted technique, painting confident Raeburn’s admired always he has though even And character. visionary and far-sighted subject’s the highlight to order in eyes blue piercing on the he worked particularly For William Robertson origins. thought where face, on the focused and position, social their reveal would that clothes and background the obliterating up, thus aclose He chose of view. point own his from them revisit to decided he and ambiguous and more disturbing him to appeared Enlightenment Scottish the of figures key three of these representations the context, new this In admired. he so painter work of the the again see to of Edinburgh University the to Tuymans Luc went independence, Scottish on referendum the before 2014,In shortly Arts. of Fine Ghentof Museum 16, at the age the saw at Tuymans whom Luc first artists (1756–1823), Scottish famous most one of the Raeburn by Henry portraits eponymous three are paintings three for these images source The Playfair of John portraits with together presented first was Robertson William featuring painting This William Robertson William The Broad Art Foundation Art Broad The ×37,550 cm canvas on oil 9 Room John Robinson John and in 2015 in London. 2015 London. in in , 2014 , The Metamorphosis The Kafka’s of Franz reminiscent scene mating of skewed asort in legs character’s of the on top are legs insect’s the that more closely, we see Looking of “poltergeist”. idea the to artist by the a reference man— the as large as almost insect of an shape alarming the superimposed is on which torso it shows ahuman paint, black almost brown, of deep strokes loose afew With painting. MD Superstition Superstition and Pacific Film Archive; Museum purchase Museum Archive; Film Pacific and Museum Art Berkeley California, of University cm ×36,8 41,9 canvas on oil 10 Room is a strange and fascinating little little fascinating and astrange is , 1994 . 19 Room 10 Room 11

Against the Day, 2008 Seal, 2007 oil on canvas; diptych oil on canvas I: 224 × 174 cm 50 × 70 cm II: 231 × 171,5 cm Edward Lee 2002 Trust Private collection FIRST FLOOR

Against the Day was also the title of the Seal shows an enlarged image found on the exhibition were these two paintings were Internet of a Jesuit wax seal. This painting shown. Of a vertical format, they feature the was first shown together withThe Valley, The same man digging at the back of a closed-off Book and The Deal in 2007, in Antwerp for an garden—that of Luc Tuymans’ old home— exhibition titled Les Revenants [The Undead]. shown in two slightly different poses as if he All the artworks of the exhibition were about had been twice startled by a powerful light the might and influence of religious power on while he was working. The contrast between political, social, cultural and identity norms, the height of the walls and the small size of in particular that of the Jesuits who have a the man, the harshness of the light and the significant presence in Antwerp. thickness of the night, as well as the lack of The legitimacy of a seal that, at the end of a text, perspective give an impression of dead end. defines its sovereign and inviolable character Nothing can be immediately understood, depends on its physical integrity. Here, the text reached or contextualized. With Luc Tuymans, and drawing are barely legible but the relief the painting raises more questions than provides patterns are accentuated as if they had become answers. tangible, almost insuperable physical limits. MD Seen from above and tightly framed, this seal is not so much an object anymore as a closed-off, circular territory from where it is impossible to escape, as is the case with Jesuit power’s structure and operating mode. MD Room 11 Room 11

Brokaat [Brocade], 2016 Pillows, 1994 oil on canvas oil on canvas 201,3 × 154 cm 54,6 × 67,3 cm Pinault Collection Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; A.W. Mellon Acquisition Endowment Fund, FIRST FLOOR 1998.1

This painting is based on a photograph Pillows belongs to a category of Luc Tuymans’ of a detail of the coat of Donatian, bishop artworks that, in spite of an explicit title, have of Reims, who stands on the right of the a loose and undefined quality with regard to Madonna in the painting of Flemish artist Jan their true subject matter. One could consider Van Eyck The Virgin and Child with Canon van this heap of yellow-greenish pillows as an der Paele (Madonna Met Kanunnik Joris Van allusive, rather than concrete, variation on Der Paele, 1436), from the Groeningemuseum the idea of masses, shapes, textures and densities in , . similar to an almost abstract topographic relief. Because it was first photographed and then What we perceive is thus not what we see painted, the brocade’s colors are very different or do not see, the motif that is represented, from those of the original painting and one can the underlying subject, the painted image quickly see a ‘mise en abyme’ effect. The viewer and the materiality of the painting in itself, doesn’t know whether what he sees is a clothing but a permanent balancing act between these or furniture fabric. different levels that creates persistent confusion The rich, embroidered fabrics of the time, and doubt in the viewer’s gaze and thought. in particular brocade, were reserved for the MD aristocracy and high clergy. No one else could use them besides these two classes, not only because of their cost, but also because of their symbolic meaning. Furthermore, the use of colors was strictly codified. For example, it was forbidden to use red, which recalls blood and death, or blue and white, the Virgin’s colors. Here, Donatian’s brocade coat is particularly rich, with silver and gold threads. Since at the time the middle class could not use the same colors and fabrics as the rich, they often used black, in particular in this region of (today Belgium and the ). The painting thus also refers to social segregation, including in present times. CB

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Angel, 1992 Der diagnostische Blick VII oil on canvas

65,7 × 61,3 cm [The Diagnostic view VII], 1992 The . oil on canvas Gift of Fred McDougal & Nancy Lauter McDougal

FIRST FLOOR 65,1 × 46 cm Kunstmuseen Krefeld

Der diagnostische Blick IV [The Diagnostic view IV], 1992 oil on canvas 57 × 38,2 cm Private collection, courtesy Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp, on long-term loan to De Pont Museum, Tilburg, NL A Polaroid picture of a Christmas figurine that the artist’s mother used to place under the family Christmas tree was the basis of Angel. Der diagnostische Blick VIII Even though this angel is easily recognizable [The Diagnostic view VIII], with its open green wings, its hands holding 1992 a white harp and its white, red and blue coat, oil on canvas its head appears as a black, fuzzy, opaque 68,8 × 39,1 cm and nondescript mass. In a way, this painting Private collection refers to the idea of beheading, which makes it almost violent, distressing and repulsive Der diagnostische Blick X when it should, because of its subject matter, be reassuring, warm and pleasant. The same [The Diagnostic view X], Polaroid picture was used for a lithograph 1992 oil on canvas in 2004 and for a wall fresco for a concert hall 48,9 × 55,3 cm in Bruges in 2012. Each of these three versions Private collection. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth has its own character, effect and meaning linked to the technique used, the exhibition space and the artist’s evolution with regard to a given subject. MD Room 13

Simulation, 2007 oil on canvas 221,6 × 294,5 cm Pinault Collection

Luc Tuymans’ made ten paintings for this This painting was inspired by a test conducted diagnostische series, which was presented in in 1983 at Disney studio by John Lasseter for 1992 in Antwerp. All the images were taken a 3D cartoon project based on Maurice Sendak’s from a medical book (Der Diagnostische Blick children’s book Where the Wild Things Are. [The Diagnostic view]) used by physicians to The pilot was abandoned and Lasseter left make a diagnosis. They thus rely on an external Disney to set up Pixar studios. sign to understand a medical condition. The painting features a cardboard model Tuymans changed the framing of the images of a children’s room used for the film pilot, in order to dramatize the subject and render but this representation is the opposite it more abstract, with none of the images being of a Disney cartoon set. Nothing tells us this contextualized. In doing so, he presents to is a bedroom as we only see bare, abstract lines viewers images that seem to be sick themselves. on a cold blue backdrop, the opposite The pale rose hues used for the flesh is of Disney’s rosy, utopian world. Luc Tuymans disturbing and the only portrait featured— worked several times on Disney’s “magic” and is a face that could be that of the artist himself— also interested in 3D imagery. Here, viewers see could be used for a psychoanalytic diagnosis. a sketch, a skeleton, the backstage... and mystery Indeed, the character has a confused gaze reappears where it was least expected. that seems disconnected and not real. This painting was presented in the exhibition The artist attempts to represent trauma Forever, the Management of Magic in New York in the very making of the portrait. He tackles in 2008 on the theme of Walt Disney and the a subject that inspires deep fear in us: the signs evolution of his entertainment company into of our mortal condition, which he presents in a full-scale ideology. a clinical, cold manner, rendering them even CB more alarming. CB

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Peaches, 2012 K, 2017 oil on canvas oil on canvas 173,8 × 118,1 cm 135 × 80,2 cm Private collection. Andrew Xue Collection, Singapore Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London FIRST FLOOR

Peaches and Technicolor were first shown The artist was inspired by advertising billboards together with the paintings of the Allo! series he saw in Panama, which feature women’s faces in 2012 in London. The following year, they that have been smoothed out to the point of were featured in two in the Dresden erasing their personality. As a filmmaker would Schauspielhaus’ stairway for the exhibition do, he zoomed on this face so close that it is Constable, Delacroix, Friedrich, Goya. A Shock partially cut out and incomplete. to the Senses curated by Luc Tuymans. Later, By moving his “paintbrush camera” so close they were reproduced in two screen prints he treats this female face as if it was an object, produced by Roger Vandaele in Antwerp. which is precisely the purpose of advertising, in The source images for both works come from particular when selling beauty products. This a 1913 advertising film whose blurriness and approach renders the face empty, almost dead, poorly saturated colors impressed Luc Tuymans. especially because it is not contextualized. But what is immediately striking is the singular But by zooming this way, the artist also way in which the artist played with whites. highlights the gaze of this woman who has been Although their subject reminds of Flemish still so objectified that she doesn’t even have a name, lifes and paintings by Jean Siméon Chardin just a letter, K. And her gaze is very expressive, (1699-1779), Édouard Manet (1832-1883), Henri as if she tried to exist beyond the image and the Fantin-Latour (1836-1904), Pierre Bonnard commercial profit that is sought through her. (1867-1947) and Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940), She seems defiant, aware that she is exploited only Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) experimented and ready to stand up as she looks far ahead, to that degree with white and emptiness as a maybe towards a future where women will not way to produce space and light between things. be treated as objects. Luc Tuymans thus reminds us that painting The treatment is smooth, flat, and the pastel doesn’t deal with reality but with the colors highlight the contrast between the representation of reality, which involves artificial aspect of advertising imagery and distancing, discrepancy and diffraction. the humanity of all women. K’s mouth is shut, MD but she smiles discreetly and her silence speaks volumes. MD Room 14 Room 14

Ballone [Balloons], 2017 Recherches [Investigations], 1989 oil on canvas oil on canvas; triptych 185,6 × 151,2 cm 36,5 × 44,5 cm Private collection 36,2 × 38,1 cm 41,9 × 46,4 cm Private collection.

SECOND FLOOR Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London

Inspired by a scene witnessed by the artist of In 1994, Luc Tuymans painted a simple a clown walking at night with a baseball bat lampshade and titled his work Lamp. in his hand, the subject of this painting has The following year, he took up again this become classic: it is the solitary and sinister subject and titled that work Home Sweet Home. clown who hurts children, a character who The painting on the left titled Recherches is the is even creepier and more dangerous than very first version of this work, dated 1989. a “usual” criminal. As in other paintings You could say there is nothing special about this representing violent men (such as Nazi figures lamp sat on a table, painted rather hesitantly, and the cannibal Issei Sagawa), the contrast except that it was part of the furniture of a Nazi is stark between the character’s pleasant officer at the Buchenwald concentration camp, costume and what we guess of his intentions. and that the lampshade is made of human skin. This contrast is enhanced by the play on lights Appearances are always deceptive. reminiscent of Francisco de Goya, whereby the The tooth in the central painting and the clown is surrounded by a bright halo while his showcase on the right come from photographs dark and sinister shadow is neatly projected taken in Auschwitz and Buchenwald by on the wall. In addition, he looks out of the Luc Tuymans during a trip to Poland and painting, which makes the scene even spookier , in 1986. They show how the Nazis because we ignore what he’s looking at and what profaned human bodies and stole precious he intends to do. objects from the dead, such as hair, teeth The treatment recalls expressionist films of the and wedding rings. 1930s such as Tod Browning’s Freaks (United For Luc Tuymans, the apparent lack States, 1932) and there is a correspondence with of expressiveness of these images is humiliating. the work of Belgian symbolist artist They are testament to a conception of medicine, (1860-1949), who prefigured Expressionism. science and conscience where human beings Ensor created clown- and carnival-like and life have lost their purpose. characters that he caricatured savagely, MD making them monstrous and creepy as well as ridiculous. A great admirer of Ensor, Luc Tuymans curated an exhibition on him titled Intrigue at the Royal Academy of London, in 2017. CB

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Bloodstains, 1993 Wandeling [Walk], 1989 oil on canvas oil on canvas 57,5 × 47,5 cm 69,9 × 54,9 cm Jenny & Jos Van den Bergh-Quermia Private collection SECOND FLOOR

The source image for Bloodstains, which is both There are frequent references to World War II realistic and abstract, is that of blood seen with and Nazism in Luc Tuymans’ oeuvre. He a microscope. It is a reference to Der rarely addresses the topic directly but through Diagnostische Blick in the sense that it is a body details, traces, clues that can seem minor and part that is clinically and medically examined. unimportant. But the artist considers they We do not know whether the blood here is are symptomatic of what has happened or inside the body or if it has been shed, which will happen. For example, the source image would imply that an accident, or something for Wandeling is a simple photograph of Nazi more sinister, happened. We do not know either dignitaries strolling around Berchtesgaden, near if this blood has been infected by AIDS. The Adolf Hitler’s residence in the Bavarian Alps. artist said that even though he had not intended Nobody knows when and where it was decided to address the epidemic, he might have been to implement the final solution, which will lead unintentionally influenced by it. to the extermination camps and gas chambers. These bloodstains seem to move including Was it during a casual conversation outdoors for some out of the painting, which thus or in an office at the Chancellery? In his oeuvre, becomes something like a living organism. Luc Tuymans enacts this doubt. Luc Tuymans said that when the painting Placed along a diagonal crossing the painting, is hung the bloodstains keep moving and this group of men and women who are almost the painting growing. too small crosses an undefined, grey area that Here, he dared to make a disturbing painting is neither the ground, snow, or sky, but just whose subject is blood, the matter and symbol emptiness and even nothingness. Next to them, of both life and death. one single tree stands, too big and almost dead. CB Thus everything in this painting is about symptoms or premonitions about what is off frame—what has been left out of the image by the artist or because the framing is too tight to give us what we’d like to see— and what this means, i.e. what was said in the conversation, which we’d like to know. MD Room 15 Room 16

Allo! I, 2012 Frozen, 2003 oil on canvas oil on canvas 133,7 × 182,6 cm 101 × 71 cm Private collection. Pinault Collection Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London SECOND FLOOR

First shown together with Peaches and This painting was first presented in the Technicolor in 2012 in London, Allo! I is part exhibition Fortune in New York, in 2003. of a series of six paintings that are based on It is the only time it has been shown. a series of television screens showing the It is based on an image taken in Chernobyl after movie The Moon and Sixpence by Albert the catastrophic accident at the Lenin nuclear Lewin (1942). The film is based on William plant, on 26 April 1986, in what was at the time Somerset Maugham’s eponymous novel (1919), the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, in the USSR. a romanticized biography of Paul Gauguin. It was the worst nuclear disaster of the 20th Luc Tuymans is particularly interested in the century, classified as level 7, the highest on last minutes of the restored version of the film, the International Nuclear Event Scale. which shifts from black & white to an explosion Inspired by an image from a YouTube of colors in the scene where a friend of Paul documentary on the decontamination efforts Gauguin’s visits his cabin after his death and carried out in Chernobyl afterwards, is stunned by the gigantic, colorful paintings the painting represents the gloved hand hanging on the walls. The friend sees them as of a worker as he is cooling down and repairing a vision of the Eden that the artist had always a reactor element. tried to reach but never managed to. Luc Tuymans used a rich array of cold colors In Allo! I, we can see Luc Tuymans’ reflection for this “frozen” painting, which he delicately on a screen as he is taking a picture of the scene. combined to represent the ice that froze the We thus witness a visual game mixing art, reactor after it had overheated. As is often the reality and fiction with an artwork representing case in his work, there is a bright halo in the an artist as he is taking a picture of a man bottom left of the canvas, which can signal looking for an artist who happens to actually the fusion, the quasi-nuclear Armageddon be looking for himself, as is almost always that happened. The image can be interpreted the case with Luc Tuymans. as an allegory of a man-made disaster whose The title is a reference to a parrot that lived consequences are overwhelming, similarly in a bar close to the artist’s studio in Antwerp to ulterior events such as 9/11. and that would always welcome visitors with CB a squeaky, exotic “Allo!”, a sort of joyful irony which is perfectly attuned with Luc Tuymans’ personality. The parrot has now passed. MD

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Die Zeit (Time), 1988 Big Brother, 2008 oil on cardboard; quadriptych oil on canvas 34,6 × 36,9 cm 146,4 × 225,1 cm 36,5 × 35,1 cm Private collection. 31,4 × 36,9 cm Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London 34,6 × 35,1 cm

SECOND FLOOR Private collection

Die Zeit (Time) comprises four, small, contrasted This painting is based on a photograph of paintings. In the first one, a church in an a television screen showing the reality TV abandoned village casts a cold shadow. There show Big Brother. Luc Tuymans kept the is a factory in the background and the words video’s original grey-blue shades. Participants “nothing to see” appear faintly in the white in this TV program are filmed 24/7 by video sky. The second one shows empty shelves and surveillance cameras placed all around the triangular brackets that look like teeth. The house. The banality of life thus becomes third one features two round shapes, which are eventful. Here, Luc Tuymans shows the actually vegetable pellets such as those produced collective bedroom, the scene of voyeurism, during World War II to feed soldiers. Lastly, sexuality, concealment, lies and, in fact, the fourth painting shows a man whose face unconscious or conscious segregation, whether is hidden by his shades. This is in fact Reinhard desired or endured, forced or suggested. Heydrich, one of the most powerful figures MD of the Third Reich nicknamed “The Butcher of Prague”. This artwork does not directly describe WWII or but does so through touches of indistinction, strangeness and direct unease that disturb the gaze and cast a doubt in the viewers’ mind about the reality of what they are looking at and their ability to analyze and decipher the content of an image. MD Room 17 Room 17

Heillicht [Curing light], 1991 Portrait, 2000 oil on canvas; triptych oil on canvas 85,5 × 63,3 cm 67 × 39 cm 50 × 40 cm Private collection. 37 × 40,5 cm Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London Mu.ZEE, SECOND FLOOR

This triptych is composed of the title-painting, Portrait is based on a commemorative Heillicht, in the center, Smell (on the left) photograph such as those distributed in Belgium and Incest (on the right). They were painted for funerals, which the artist picked up in the independently from one another and Luc street. The original image has no meaning for Tuymans decided to unite them in one single anyone who did not know the deceased and time work because of their color. The central erased the scant details and information it held. painting, whose German title means “soothing/ Furthermore, the fact that Tuymans chose healing light” is inspired by a book published the same hue for the face of the subject in 1942 in Germany (and authorized and for the background renders the presence in Canada) by Dr. Paul Wolff and titled of this woman in the painting even less real. Meine Erfarhungen... farbig [My experiences... Similarly, touches of orange-yellow around in color]. The book is about a photography the eyes, lips and neck, far from bringing some technique that makes colors look as if they were joy to the face instill on the contrary unease painted. Allowing for the first time the massive and a feeling of resignation linked to the idea reproduction of color images, this technique of the end of life and loss. was notably used by Nazi propaganda. MD Here, the artist reproduced a picture from this book showing a doctor treating a young patient with light therapy, but he represented the two characters in a more perfunctory manner with large brush strokes. The light also radiates, but here it is darkened and certainly not as warm and optimistic as in the original photograph. Next to this painting is Smell, which gives an abstract representation of deodorant bottles: using an array of pinks and oranges, the artist represents fragrances with shapes and colors as if he was merging two senses in one. Incest is in stark contrast with the two other paintings. In black & white, it evokes the sense of touch by representing a very close view of a hand going through an orifice. Such a violent and transgressive act is featured here in a cold, decontextualized and dehumanized manner. CB

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Cook, 2013 oil on canvas 229,5 × 169,3 cm Private collection SECOND FLOOR

Cook is among a series of paintings that were including the details of the hat, the horizontal first presented in 2013 at Zeno X gallery working table and the diagonal at the right hand in Antwerp together with works of Marlene corner—as a portrait of one of those trendy Dumas, a South African painter based chefs whose sophisticated cuisine Tuymans in the Netherlands who is a friend of Tuymans’, appreciates. both personally and as an artist. Indeed, MD the exhibition was titled Twice. The painting shows a cook from a three quarter angle as he is skinning an animal before roasting it. Because the whole painting is treated with red, orange, yellow, white and bluish grey hues similar to those of a wood-fired oven, it seems the fire is shining a direct light on most of the scene while the white-clad cook comes out as a dazzling ghost. The almost spiritual effect of this painting is akin to great Baroque painting, in particular that of Caravaggio, but rather than emulating the latter’s chiaroscuros and his warm, dark, earthy colors and saturated reds, Luc Tuymans opted for inverting the contrasts in favor of white, cold light and hues that remind of sunset or a nuclear explosion, as he did for Sundown and Instant. Even though he regularly pays homage to the old masters, Tuymans is never ironical and doesn’t parody. On the contrary, he builds on the heritage left by the elders in order to better revisit it in a contemporary light. In a way, this painting is as much a contemporary revisitation of the character of Vulcan—Peter Paul Rubens comes to mind, Room 18 Room 18

Lungs, 1998 Intolerance, 1993 oil on canvas oil on canvas 158 × 95,5 cm 80 × 70 cm Collection of Beth Swofford Private collection, Belgium SECOND FLOOR

Light, color and depth are central in This painting represents Luc Tuymans’ Luc Tuymans’ oeuvre. Anaglyph viewing, mother’s collection of 1970s candlesticks. whereby purpose-made glasses restore the The way these candlesticks, which hold unlit third dimension, is the basis of Lungs. Indeed, candles, are placed transforms the way they are the source image is a 3D representation of a perceived. They are represented stacked against sectioned lung found in an anatomy book. In one another, each of a different size and casting this painting, this organ which is essential to life an imposing shadow on an ochre, rosy and has been rendered almost ghostly by the artist brownish, dim backdrop. through the uneven superimposition of brown, But everything is unlit here: the candles as beige, muddy red and fluorescent green shades. well as the wall’s color, and the source of light By relying on scientific or medical imagery on can only be seen through the shadow it casts. the one hand and the interiority of the human This gives an impression of exiguity: these body on the other, Luc Tuymans opened the unassorted and outdated candlesticks are tightly painting on the infinity of representation’s arranged. There is a lack of light, breath and alternative or interstitial spaces. space in this scene that can be interpreted as MD a representation of our interiors—in the literal sense of our homes and in the figurative sense of our minds—, which are so narrow (and intolerant as the title suggests) that there is no room left, not even for a small flame. This work also recalls, because of the flatness of representation, the Italian master of still life (1890-1964) even though the elements’ shadow is represented. CB

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The Heritage VI, 1996 The Park, 2005 oil on canvas oil on canvas 53 × 43,5 cm 160 × 246,5 cm Private collection. Private collection. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London SECOND FLOOR

What looks at first sight like the generic image As Dirt Road, The Park doesn’t represent of a rather pleasant and genial middle class anything in particular apart from various American man is in fact the portrait of Joseph tree trunks seen from above, framed almost at Milteer, a right-wing extremist from Georgia ground level. The range of shades used by Luc who was close to the Ku Klux Klan. He is often Tuymans is relatively clear and muted and the mentioned in conspiracy theories about the painting seems to be of a night scene. It is also assassination of John F. Kennedy, but no one testament to the artist’s work process, which has ever been able to prove he was on site at the starts from a photograph taken or found, time. Luc Tuymans was particularly impressed which is then re-photographed once or several by the way the thin-rimmed metal spectacles times with a Polaroid up until the right image enlarge the eyes, which are Klansmen’s only is obtained and finally transposed on a canvas visible feature when they wear their white robe whose size may vary. and cone-shaped hat. But it is those eyes as well Here, the painting has kept a trace of the source as the smile and the thick hair that give this man of light that enabled the photograph to be an attractive, square look even though he is an taken—Is it a flash? A torch light?—as well embodiment of the “banality of evil” theorized as the typical Polaroid “discoloration” effect by German philosopher Hannah Arendt. in some shades and details. On the other hand, Contrary to other paintings by Luc Tuymans, the twilight eeriness of the painting reminds there is nothing disturbing or confusing here; of the great masters of Belgian symbolist both the representation and the original face are painting such as James Ensor, Léon Spilliaert, decoys and dangerous traps. William Degouve de Nuncques, Georges MD Le Brun and Xavier Mellery. MD Room 19 Room 19

Die Wiedergutmachung Toter Gang [Dead End], 2018 [Compensation], 1989 oil on canvas oil on cardboard, mounted on plywood, 258,6 × 185,5 cm 36,6 × 43 cm Private collection. oil on canvas, 39,4 × 51,8 cm Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London diptych

SECOND FLOOR Private collection. Courtesy Studio Luc Tuymans, Antwerp

The Schwarzheide, Secrets, Our New Here, Luc Tuymans once again tackles Nazism, Quarters , Recherches [Investigations] and Die a recurring theme throughout his oeuvre. Wiedergutmachung series presented throughout He used the image of the steel entrance door the exhibition are all fragments of Nazi images of Hitler’s Berchtesgaden bunker and its that have lost their quality as proof or clue. network of tunnels. But here, nothing informs The “banality of evil” theorized by Hannah the viewer about the source and the German Arendt is only perceptible through what is title, which means “the corridor of the dead”, missing, erased and hidden or through formal is not directly informative either. incongruities. The artist hence did not wish to see this For example, the two boxes of eyes and painting interpreted as a comment about hands of the Die Wiedergutmachung diptych Nazism. The theme that is clearly apparent, could be those of old dolls; they are in fact on the other hand, is confinement, but based on photographs found in the house presented here in a paradoxical way. Indeed, of a Nazi doctor who conducted medical on what side of this closed door are we standing? experimentations on Gypsy twins. After Inside or outside? Are we protected or detained? the war, the Gypsies never received any Both options are open. “reparation” as genocide victims. As often in Luc Tuymans’ work, the subject Luc Tuymans’ sober and intense style enhances is decontextualized: the door is not related to the reality of the original deed beyond any architectural element and the composition the details that have been erased or smoothed is abstract, with two black horizontal strips— out. Just as facts can never be erased from black being the color of all colors, rarely used the memory of those who lived them, this series by the artist and in figurative painting— of paintings challenges time and oblivion. framing the black, vertical rectangle of the door. MD It is surrounded by a semi-circular halo of light, which gives the door a surreal, metaphysical dimension, as if it was inviting us to cross over to the hereafter. The question is whether there is a possibility of redemption behind the door, including for the absolute evil that was Nazism. The painting also questions the veracity of images. This image is an incomplete record of our history; it reminds us that we should not forget this dark period while also pointing to our own ambivalence. CB

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Penitence, 2018 Venedig [], 2017 oil on canvas oil on canvas 195,5 × 141,2 cm 107,3 × 208 cm Private collection. Private collection. Courtesy Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp Courtesy Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp SECOND FLOOR

Luc Tuymans used a photograph of a sculpture Luc Tuymans took a picture of a low relief seen in Spain, of the kind shown in Holy painting he saw at the Bauer Hotel in Venice. Week’s processions. These figures representing The image obtained gives the pictured artwork the Virgin or a saint are generally dressed with a distorted aspect, as if it was made in leather. an embroidered velvet coat. Penitence, which It is built and painted as a sculpture, which evokes a highly Catholic ritual, is here presented ends up giving it quite an abstract aspect. next to Toter Gang, which evokes utter evil Photography modified the original image and the possibility of redemption. Sculpted and transformed it to the point of becoming by craftsmen to be adored by the so-called a sort of caricature of the project. “penitents” during Holy Week, these figures The resulting painting, with its earthy, ochre have also been used as models by great Spanish and yellow hues that are difficult to render, painters, such as the Baroque master Zurbarán. seems like a critical representation of the Here, the image is truncated and we do not see trappings of power, wealth and orientalism the head. It is taken from below, which places that are unique to Venice. the viewer (of the painting and of the real CB procession, where figures are carried at arm’s length above the crowd) in a position of both adoration and submission, reinforced by the figure’s imposing format and the costume’s deep black color. By placing this penitence near the closed door of Nazism, Tuymans tackles the philosophical, almost psychoanalytical theme of guilt seen as a bad solution with regard to the atrocities of our history, of our human stories. CB Room 20 Room 20

Candle, 2017 Indelible Evidence, 2017 oil on canvas oil on canvas 134,6 × 108,5 cm 87,9 × 97,4 cm Private collection. Peng Pei Cheng Courtesy Studio Luc Tuymans, Antwerp SECOND FLOOR

As all painters are, Luc Tuymans is keenly The subject of this painting is an image interested in light, a subject matter he treated of a chewed apple, although the subject is not in various ways such as in Sundown, and Instant. immediately recognizable because the apple Here, he tackles the subject directly: the is not yellow or red but grey, as if it was made painting is based on a photograph he took of in stone or metal. a candle burning behind a sheet of paper. It is This particular apple is inspired by a real to be noted that Tuymans chose to paint this incident: a doctor managed to identify light behind a screen, i.e. the paper. As if it was a criminal by analyzing the half-eaten apple necessary to use an intermediary to really grasp he had left at the scene of the crime. This apple the nature of this fundamental and fascinating is hence a piece of indelible evidence. element, which is essential to life. Luc Tuymans revisited this subject several Light and the spiritual value we attribute it times. He drew an apple in 1993 and comes back found our Christian civilization and the whole to this subject for our La Pelle exhibition, whose history of Western art. Here, the pictorial title refers to our relationship with our body gesture is quite an achievement because as is also the case here. Tuymans manages to show without explaining But it is also impossible not to think of the first or being directly illustrative. Contrary to other ever chewed apple in a crime scene, that of Eve of his artworks, the title here is literal and gives and Adam, the doomed apple that will drive direct information about the subject matter. human beings out of paradise and make them CB for ever guilty, the indelible evidence of the first “crime” forever irreparable. CB

35 SECOND FLOOR CB unreal. almost character the renders whiteness body’s the Furthermore, unthinkable. the representing matter: subject the to aparadox brings artist by the chosen and proposed image the again, Here sensible. and studious look him make which spectacles, character’s the to drawn is gaze Our mouth. cannibal’s the particular in disappearing, be to seems abstract, almost is which face, the and images) of video (a photograph image original of the blurriness the reproduces painting The blurry. is Sagawa of Issei image the Here, Japan. to extradited being before France in prison in years several 1981. spent in Sagawa Sorbonne, Paris at the student afellow cannibalized and who murdered aJapanese Sagawa, on Issei of adocumentary smartphone his with he took apicture from one (in 2012) 2014, this Tuymans Luc made dated exhibition, the of painting first for the As Room 20 Room Issei Sagawa Private collection, Belgium collection, Private ×81,4116,2 cm canvas on oil , 2012 timeless time of cyberspace. of cyberspace. time timeless the in as or evening morning either be it could we are; time in point at which us it doesn’t tell Similarly, screens. or mobile glow of television the of andreminiscent flat rather it is contrary, the On depth. any doesn’t bring light Here, subjects. and paintings several in glow featured of type acertain particular in Tuymans’ oeuvre, Luc in theme arecurring are sources Light bedroom. of this shown is detail no other as element biographical only the It title). is the (hence bedroom his in bed artist’s the from shown is light The ball. of crystal asort as it appears Here, painting. of challenges difficult most one of the of course is light Representing or dusk. of dawn light flimsy the with lit detail, devoid of any abedroom in lamp unlit of an image an is This CB Bedroom Pinault Collection Pinault 159,9 cm ×209,8 canvas on oil 21 Room , 2014 Room 21 Room 21

Bend Over, 2001 Niger, 2017 oil on canvas oil on canvas 60 × 60 cm 180,7 × 236 cm Private collection Private collection. Courtesy Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp SECOND FLOOR

Bend Over refers to a situation of extreme The image used in this painting titled Niger vulnerability and intimacy: a scantily clad is the surface of an operating silver mine. man or woman is bending forward, showing As often with Luc Tuymans, the subject has a the curve of their back. Even though this is double meaning because it presents an almost in fact a medical examination for a scoliosis abstract, monochromatic representation while case, Luc Tuymans has placed the viewer in at the same time evoking the exploitation the uncomfortable position of having to watch of miners and colonization. Indeed, Niger was an almost humiliating situation, thus making a French colony between 1900 and 1958. The us complicit with the power that science and colonization of African countries by Europeans medicine exert over individuals, as stated is a recurring theme in Luc Tuymans’ oeuvre, in the authoritarian tone of the title. In doing and he has tackled several times the Belgian so, he affirms that images cannot be banal or colonization of Congo. neutral when human life is at stake. The area of land represented is almost lunar MD and in any case conjures up somewhere that is elsewhere. The traces remind of ornaments, shapes used in low relief sculpture or jewelry, but also of a labyrinth. Once again, Luc Tuymans proposes a subject that can be seen or read in different ways. One could also see trenches, which would be reminiscent of old, black & white images of World War I, a period when European colonialists ruled over Africa. CB

37 Room 22 Room 22

Twenty Seventeen, 2017 The Shore, 2014 oil on canvas oil on canvas 94,7 × 62,7 cm 194,2 × 358,4 cm Pinault Collection Tate SECOND FLOOR

The image is inspired by a Brazilian TV series Luc Tuymans uses all the techniques of cinema titled 3% about a dystopian society divided and photography. He frames his subjects in two: on the one hand the rich (3% of the in original ways and uses close ups, blur, day for population) and on the other the poor. To access night and overexposure. Surrender refers to the the society of the rich the poor can, when they opening scene of Don Chaffey’s 1968 filmTwist turn 20, try their luck at an examination/game of Sand. called “The Process”, but they only have one An ex-Royal Navy officer is confronted with go and only 3% of them will succeed. When his past when he has to travel back to the a candidate fails, he or she knows their fate is Skeleton Coast near Angola to retrieve a load sealed and that they will be poisoned to death. of diamonds. He is haunted by an episode from The painting represents the face of a woman World War II of a seek and destroy mission of a at the moment when she learns she will be put German submarine and the killing of its crew. to death by poisoning. This situation This trauma is strongly expressed in the and statement seem very in tune with our times, opening sequence of the film, where the crew given the number of movies depicting members are seen emerging from the dark one a nightmarish future where most of humanity after the other with their hands up to signal is enslaved as in Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927), they are surrendering. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) and more This painting is rare in Luc Tuymans’ oeuvre, recently Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, as the artist usually refuses to use black. But 2017). The painting offers a striking image here, it sublimates the drama of the scene of human beings’ powerlessness in the face similarly to Francisco de Goya’s black. of unidentified, absolute power. MD CB Room 22 Room 23

Sundown, 2009 The Return, 2018 oil on canvas oil on canvas 182 × 239 cm 228,1 × 166 cm Private collection. Igal Ahouvi Art Collection Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London SECOND FLOOR

Sundown is a large canvas featuring, as its This painting presents a very cinematic title suggests, a sunset but it could also be and dramatic image of three characters climbing interpreted as a nuclear cloud. As for Instant, down stairs, inspired by David Lynch’s most the dominant hues of red, orange and pink recent Twin Peaks: The Return miniseries. suggest rather than represent the event, The black and white shades, the light shone the physical phenomenon, the blast, on the characters from below casting their the explosion or the induced heat. shadow on the wall, the stature of these three The source of this painting is in fact a very low men who seem to be returning from the cold resolution image taken from the Web without and the fact that they are pictured as they are any relation with reality and digitally produced. moving down the stairs: all these elements The gradient of colors, which go from blue make us believe that, as in a movie, something to white, that Luc Tuymans painstakingly happened before and that these characters are reproduced in painting is hence more artificial about to dramatically advance the story towards than natural, more technical than emotional, a denouement that will happen off frame, after more icy than warm. the instant of the painting. In so doing, the Once again, the artist asks us to face the painting projects us in the history of cinema painting, representation and image to better and, besides Lynch, Murnau and Orson Welles decipher, understand and interpret them come to mind. beyond their nature or appearance, and then This is a cold, inward-looking painting, the to give them body and meaning. opposite of Pigeons, which, even though based MD on images out of a book, seem alive whereas here time has stopped. It is the shadow, hence emptiness, which gives weight to the characters. However, the contrast effects that dramatize the situation are such that they make it almost comical. The Return presents a scene without destination. Nothing tells us what these men are seeking as they come down these stairs. The scene reminds of Marcel Duchamp’s famous Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) revisited later, in 1966, by Gerard Richter, which also featured characters coming down a stair without destination. CB

39 Room 23 Room 23

Mother of Pearl, 2018 Orchid, 1998 oil on canvas oil on canvas 204,6 × 159,7 cm 99,5 × 76,7 cm Private collection. Private collection. Courtesy Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London SECOND FLOOR

The idea of vanity, which is recurrent in Luc Luc Tuymans considers Orchid as a “violent Tuymans’ oeuvre, is present in this painting. It painting” and said that the idea of “cutting” is a close up view on casino chips photographed has sexual connotations. However, the artist in Hong Kong, a city that is well known as a didn’t say whether this cutting-off refers to an gaming hotspot, often featured in cinema act performed on the flower’s physical body— such as in the James Bond series and in Orson graft of genetic mutation—or on the canvas. Welles’ films. He also said that statistical measures show that The mother of pearl chips represented here are men’s semen is becoming less and less dense particularly difficult to paint because of their and fertile at a time when plants are modifying shimmer, reflections and iridescent colors that and enriching their sexual characters in order are both rich and simple. The artist has used to adapt and survive the many mutations his palette to the max. undergone by ecosystems. As often in his paintings, Luc Tuymans Notions of naturality and artificiality—here proposes a paradoxical position that allows intensified by the raw green color—are for various readings and interpretations of the then disrupted in regard to the qualities of image. It can be seen as a representation of the originality, purity and authenticity usually fake money of our casino-economy; of the greed associated with nature and human beings. of those who can never amass enough, or of the In a way, Orchid is an unusual kind of impermanence and vanity of wealth since the contemporary vanity, an ode to the mutating chips are piled up without any care or order, and almost “replicant” beauty being as a pile of rubbish. engineered in laboratories. CB MD Room 24 Room 24

The Rabbit, 1994 Corso II, 2015 oil on canvas oil on canvas 59,5 × 72 cm 195,5 × 152,5 cm Private collection. Private collection. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London SECOND FLOOR

Sweet, pastoral creatures, rabbits are This painting is based on a photograph taken considered in many cultures as related to the by the artist’s father in his childhood, in the Moon, fertility and spring. This rabbit is lit by 1970s. It is a parade float from the the Moon but from the inside and it seems to be Flower Parade, the village where the artist’s about to chew a four-leaf clover, which is mother is from, as was Vincent Van Gogh. This yet another symbol of abundance and luck. flower-covered float is the largest in the world. The scene could be either at dawn or dusk, The fruit of months of work in secret, it is when rabbits come out of their hole, but in brought out in the streets only once a year for any case under the rays of the Moon which the parade held the first Sunday of September give the painting a certain magic feel. on the occasion of a community and festive This glowing quality, apart from being moment similar to the Rio Carnival. an amazing technical feat by the artist, is also When the picture was taken, Luc Tuymans a reference to one of his favorite subjects: the was under the float along with other children, glow of television, computer and mobile screens. pushing it forward. This was for him a stressful These screens shine a light on us but do they experience that made him angry and which he make us less blind? This rabbit glows but assimilated to slavery, to man treated as a beast doesn’t have eyes. One can hope the four-leaf of burden. Tuymans only made a few paintings clove will protect it from predators. But who directly inspired by his childhood, and this one will protect us from the illusions projected is the only one featured in the exhibition. on our screens? Are we so enslaved to our In his pictorial treatment, he plays on the screens that even a creature as earth-bound image’s blurriness, a fading memory, and he as a rabbit only appears to us as a glowing, uses a palette that is not realistic, which gives disembodied image? the work an unreal feel as if he wanted to open CB a space for critical viewing. “The floats were quite low so the children had to run under them and push. It was a bit like slavery,” said the artist. “I’ve used those that had a singular shape and are somewhat flamboyant. They also have a very aggressive tension, which is enhanced by the fact that they move slowly.” CB

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Dirt Road, 2003 Child Abuse, 1989 oil on canvas oil on canvas 153,5 × 127 cm 55 × 65 cm Private collection Private collection SECOND FLOOR

Dirt Road was first presented in New York This work is imbued with ambiguity and for the exhibition Fortune. All the exhibition unease. The imagery and the simple shapes artworks referred one way or another to seem innocuous: a rectangle, two squares, two the state of the world after 11 September 2001, dots and a tulip inspired by an advertising logo. in particular in the United States. The painting The light colors also seem harmless. But the doesn’t show anything in particular, only a bit title, Child Abuse, is shocking. The image is of sidewalk at night seen from above and from indeed inspired by an advertisement on risks for a sideways angle. This could be an image from children, which is here rendered almost abstract. a surveillance camera placed above a street door, The work is about untold and potentially or our own view when looking through the horrific stories that unfold behind the normality window to see who is ringing the door bell. of appearances, something deeply disturbing as The space is closed-off but at the same time when familiar people or environments suddenly seems to escape from all sides. Similarly, given become strange and threatening. that each texture is precisely, painstakingly CB detailed, the viewer is drawn into the depth of each layer of paint even though in reality they would only encounter insurmountable opacities. This is typical of Luc Tuymans’ paradoxes: to open ways out or possibilities in the representation when, in reality, everything would seem inescapably closed and obtuse. In other words, breaking with the fanaticism and fatalism that is at the heart of the emerging suspicion and surveillance society. MD Room 25 Room 26

The Arena I, II, III, 2014 The Heritage I, 1995 oil on canvas oil on canvas 176,3 × 252,7 cm 145 × 79,5 cm 182,2 × 253 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art: Purchased 169 × 242 cm with funds from the gift (by exchange) Private collection, Singapore of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur A. Goldberg

SECOND FLOOR and with funds contributed by the Committee on Twentieth-Century Art, 1996

The Arena series of paintings is inspired by an 8 mm film made by the artist, from which he drew pictures. Seen as a whole, the three paintings feature a cinema sequence and camera The Heritage is part of a series of ten paintings movement, applying cinema syntax to painting. exhibited in 1996 in New York and painted Two elements are immediately striking: the previous year. This series questions a character who appears flimsily in the first American cultural icons and symbols following painting comes out of the shadow in the second the terrorist attack on a federal building in one and turns toward viewers in the third Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh, in 1995. one. It is the only recognizable figure, isolated In this painting, two heads positioned one on from a group of undistinguishable characters. top of the other emerge from successive shades The other element is obviously the bright of grey-blue and a pale backdrop, both faceless source of light at the heart of each of the three and without much contour. They look the paintings. Something is happening at the center same but one has a simple basketball cap while of the scene that draws the attention of all the the other has the same type of cap but with characters and the one at the forefront seems flaps over the ears like a traditional American to want to alert us about it. hunting cap. This duality invites the viewer The amazing feat here is that the central feature to redefine collective identification to an object, of both the scene itself and the paintings, figure or event, and individual anonymity in although brightly lit, is invisible! We do not the face of current news, history or tragedy. know what is happening even though we see MD that something intense, even dramatic, is going on. But who is looking? And what do we see? How do we represent what we see? Luc Tuymans, painter and filmmaker, asks the question... and hides the answer in a flood of light. CB

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Oregon, 2017 Donation, 2008 oil on canvas oil on canvas 326,5 × 186,4 cm 24,6 × 31,3 cm Private collection Private collection. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth SECOND FLOOR

The original image is a picture of a building in Donation is in fact the portrait of British Portland (in the American state of Oregon) that intellectual Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) who Luc Tuymans took with his smartphone. It is gave instructions in his will for his body to be one of his very few works inspired by a picture preserved as a “self-icon”. In spite of the efforts he took directly. of physicians, his head could not be preserved The artist sees a trompe-l’oeil with real and was replaced by one made in resin. and fake windows. The painting reminds of Luc Tuymans’ painting was not made from a classic fresco, except that this one represents this resin head but from filmed images of it, the American idea of the new world, in the which renders even more ambiguous the relation West, and the encounter between trappers between life and death and the natural and the and Native Americans. They are shaking hands! artificial within pictorial representation. This It represents a self-confident America although confusion is even greater because of the model’s all the characters are armed. almost empty gaze. The painting and painting technique enhance MD the “historicization” of the subject, which is the very young American history that aspires to appear old and deeply rooted. The work also questions the image: it is not hyper-realistic but it does come from somewhere, which creates a ‘mise en abyme’ of the subject matter: this trompe-l’oeil (literally “trick-the-eye” in French) also tricks the perception in photography and painting. Can a painting give historical weight to a subject? The title, Oregon, refers obviously to the name of the American state where the picture was taken. But the word “Oregon” reminds of the word “origin”, which enhances the questioning about origin and history conveyed by the painting. CB Room 27 Room 27

Head, 2012 Die blaue Eiche [The blue oak], oil on canvas 1998 66,9 × 66,2 cm oil on canvas Private collection 176,5 × 105 cm Grażyna Kulczyk Collection. Courtesy Galerie Isabella Czarnowska, SECOND FLOOR

A partial close up of a child’s head covers all the The artist made this painting (titled “the blue surface of this almost square painting, painted oak tree” in German) from a drawing by Caspar with wide strokes and a subtle array of mauves, David Friedrich, which he re-drew, cut out and greys and bluish whites. Is it an ultrasound photographed with a Polaroid. Luc Tuymans scan? Or a doll? But then the head seems is fascinated by this German artist (1774-1840) to have been hurt or operated on as shown because of the efficiency of his paintings and by the semicircular scar, or incision, at the top drawings, most of which are small-sized even right of the canvas. though their subject matter is deep. Luc Tuymans has often featured children’s faces The image is hence a drawing that belongs and dolls, striving to pinpoint what makes them to a series made by the famous German artist different from one another, or when and how of wintry scenes showing a frozen nature, it is possible to represent embodiment, life as a theme in which he is considered a master. it appears, this moment when a face becomes In the painting, Tuymans “flattened” Caspar human and inhabited or on the contrary when it David Friedrich’s view, since the photographic becomes an inanimate object. In Head, the artist image of a drawing re-drawn by Tuymans has erased the distinction between what is real brings a distance with the subject matter and unreal, born and dead, between a sketch of and obliterates the singularity of the what will become and an unfinished life project. original drawing. The image is very intense and we guess that a But in both cases the landscape is more mental lot is happening off frame, far from us. As often than real. Tuymans does not reproduce reality with Tuymans, the more one contemplates, but rather the mental image of a landscape, the more one perceives what cannot be seen. which is confusing because the fake landscape CB can actually give the impression of real nature. In so doing, he asks one of the fundamental questions of art: is it possible to believe in art, in this case painting, and its representations? CB

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Fingers, 1995 oil on canvas 37,5 × 33 cm Musée d’arts de Nantes SECOND FLOOR

Fingers pushes the limits of enlargement to the point of de-realization. Although these fingers do belong to a body, hence to a real person, the framing and use of a single color render them sculptural and almost archetypical. The notion of “close up” is recurrent in Luc Tuymans’ oeuvre; for example, it is present in the three eyes of Pigeons, the nondescript mass of Pillows, and the bulb in Orchid. The close up allows to transform—almost in a Kafkaesque way—humans into animals, normality into monstrosity, and the natural into the artificial. Here, our gaze is invited not to recognize the motif that is represented, or to go over the surface of the painting as we’d go over the surface of the skin, but rather to delve into the painting’s layers in order to better reach the flesh itself and its founding organicity. MD

Photo credits Ron Amstutz. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London Ben Blackwell. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London Peter Cox. Courtesy Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp Matteo De Fina Courtesy Hauser & Wirth Paul Hester Kerry McFate Tim Nighswander/IMAGING4ART. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London Adam Reich Studio Luc Tuymans, Antwerp Felix Tirry. Courtesy Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp Luc Tuymans. La Pelle

Palazzo Grassi, Venice 24.III.2019 — 6.I.2020

Texts by Caroline Bourgeois, curator of the exhibition, and by Marc Donnadieu, chief curator of the Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne.

The catalogue of the exhibition Luc Tuymans. La Pelle, published by Marsilio Editori in French, Italian and English in March 2019, gathers essays by Marc Donnadieu, Jarrett Earnest and Patricia Falguières. Philippe Delforge, Les produits de l’épicerie