Luc Tuymans on Baroque EN 01.06–16.09.2018 Sanguine / Bloedrood 1 Luc Tuymans on Baroque 01.06–16.09.2018 2 Table of Contents 7 Introduction 9 A conversation between Luc Tuymans, Bart De Baere and Manfred Sellink on the occasion of Sanguine/Bloedrood. Luc Tuymans on Baroque 29 Artists 133 Luc Tuymans on Baroque Éric Suchère 139 Two Spectres Ken Pratt 145 On the Invisibility of Art Bart De Baere Isa Genzken, Untitled, 2006 Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin/New York, photo © M HKA4 5 Introduction Sanguine / Luc Tuymans on Baroque 01.06– 16.09.2018 Bloedrood During the cultural city festival Antwerp Francisco de Zurbarán, Lili Dujourie, Baroque 2018. Rubens inspires, curator Marlene Dumas, Zhang Enli, Jan Fabre, Luc Tuymans juxtaposes the spirit of Lucio Fontana, Marcel Gautherot, the baroque masters with the vision of Isa Genzken, Joris Ghekiere, contemporary top artists. The exhibition Franciscus Gijsbrechts, Pierre Huyghe, Sanguine/Bloedrood aims to overwhelm Jonathan Johnson, Jacob Jordaens, the visitor by placing key works from the On Kawara, Edward Kienholz, Baroque in dialogue with the work of Jukka Korkeila, Dominik Lejman, classical contemporary masters, and new Takashi Murakami, Nadia Naveau, works by contemporary stars. Sanguine/ Bruce Nauman, Johann Georg Pinsel, Bloedrood is a visually opulent and chal- Sigmar Polke, Tobias Rehberger, lenging exhibition that brings old masters Peter Paul Rubens, Yutaka Sone, into the experimental spaces of contempo- Henri Storck, Piotr Tolmachov, rary art. Pascale Marthine Tayou, Javier Téllez, David Gheron Tretiakoff, Dennis Tyfus, The term ‘baroque’ continues to evoke Anthony van Dyck, Jan Van Imschoot, Jan some of its original negative connotations Vercruysse and Jack Whitten. - exaggeration and indulgence - but simul- taneously suggests something exciting, The exhibition is a joint organisation something elusive. Tuymans brushes the of the M HKA, Studio Luc Tuymans, dust from the threadbare term, and revisits the KMSKA and Fondazione Prada. the intensity of the image. Tuymans chose Following the Antwerp edition, a second the evocative, poetic Sanguine/Bloedrood – and new version of the exhibition will be as an energy flow of life and death – as the shown at Fondazione Prada’s Milan venue title for the exhibition. from October 2018 to February 2019. Tuymans chooses not to set up Sanguine/ Curator: Luc Tuymans Bloedrood as an art-historical, canon- ical overview, but according to his own The cultural city festival Antwerp Baroque personal interpretation that deliberately 2018. Rubens inspires pays homage to Peter leaves many gaps. It is the gaze of a Paul Rubens and his Baroque, cultural creator onto other creators. heritage. During the festival, the spot- light will be on Peter Paul Rubens, one Sanguine/Bloedrood presents of the most influential artists ever and works of, John Armleder, Carla the most famous inhabitant of Antwerp. Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen, He personifies the Baroque period and Fred Bervoets, Michaël Borremans, is an important source of inspiration for Mike Bouchet, Adriaen Brouwer, contemporary artists and the atypical Caravaggio, Berlinde De Bruyckere, lifestyle of the city and its inhabitants. 6 7 Thierry De Cordier, Cornelis De Vos, Antwerp Baroque 2018. Rubens inspires tells Introduction a story about the Baroque, in the past and the present, and creates a dialogue between historic Baroque and the work January 2018 of contemporary artists. With the city of Antwerp and the world as its décor. Antwerp Baroque 2018. Rubens inspires is a key event in VisitFlanders’ Flemish Masters programme. It promises to be explicitly extroverted and to combine artistic originality with authentic hospi- tality. From June 2018 to January 2019 in Antwerp. More information on www.antwerpbaroque2018.be A conversation between Luc Tuymans, Bart De Baere and Manfred Sellink on the occasion of Sanguine/Bloedrood. Luc Tuymans on Baroque 8 9 9 A conversation between Luc Tuymans, Bart De Baere and Manfred Sellink on the occasion of Sanguine/Bloedrood. Luc Tuymans on Baroque January 2018 Luc Tuymans: “The installation of The work of Kienholz (Five Car Stud), Edward Kienholz kick-starts the exhibi- together with the work of Caravaggio, tion. The iconic work had gone ‘missing’ form the two benchmarks between which for 40 years, it had been hidden in a the contemporary field will develop. Japanese collection all that time. It resur- The fact that the Baroque style has been faced in 2011 and was immediately shown engrained in Western image thinking to the public again. First in the basement and has, as such, inspired various power of the LACMA, then in the Louisiana groups, is often overlooked. This is clearly Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, reflected in a colonial context, however. It and then in the Prada Foundation, which is one of the reasons why Pascale Tayou, bought the work and linked it to a larger and also Johann Georg Pinsel from retrospective around Kienholz’s oeuvre. Ukraine, are in the exhibition. Although 45 years old, the installation is extremely contemporary. It is a very polit- The image is overwhelming within ical, social and critical piece of work. It has the iconic installation. There are three a certain urgency about it. elements that play and that are continu- ously present throughout the exhibition: We show the installation in a tent on the the index, the symbol and the icon. The Waalse Kaai, located between the M HKA theatricality of Kienholz’s work also raises and the KMSKA. So outside the premises, the question of whether or not the image in the intimate darkness of a dome. Exactly moves. It contains a cinematic element. as Five Car Stud was initially shown, on the Documenta of 1972, by Harald Szeemann. The documentation on Five Car Stud – a Although our tent is not made of exactly work by Edward Kienholz and his wife the same material, it does have approxi- Nancy – can be visited outside the exhibition mately the same dimensions. on the first floor of the M HKA. When I first saw the work from a distance, The large works by Rubens - which we do it reminded me of Goya’s El tres de mayo. not show in the KMSKA, but in churches Maybe not a Baroque painting, but a - show that they are not actually made work by an old master anyway. It is over- for the intimate atmosphere, but for the whelming and - as it shows an execution public domain in particular. That is why - has an obvious element of violence. That we show the film by Henri Storck Rubens overwhelming and violent aspect is also in the exhibition. Outside, on the facade of present in Kienholz’s installation. For me, the M HKA, we project images of David that makes Five Car Stud the connecting and Goliath by Caravaggio, which we piece between Baroque paintings and filmed at Villa Borgehse. In this way, we contemporary art. The work is not only reinforce the cinematic character and the the starting point of the exhibition, it also narrative of the exhibition. It is not an 10 11 owes its title – Sanguine/Bloedrood – to it. exhibition that will be jam-packed with A conversation between Luc Tuymans, Bart De Baere en Manfred Sellink Sanguine/Bloedrood works, but one that is perceptually grafted The video of Javier Téllez strikes me master very clear within that process. aspect can change to a different kind on identities and entities. as Baroque, in the sense that it is about Murakami’s work also contains a PR of narrative. There is also an element something iconic: the image of the lion, element, which relates in an inert way to of reflection, of resistance in her work. In the centre is a work by Carla Arocha the image of power. For me as well as what he actually means: a nihilistic view of This is also evident in The Kiss, where and Stéphane Schraenen Circa Tabac, for my wife, it is a work with a strong life. In the case of the Baroque, this view the undulating tenderness of soft matter which has already been shown in The emotional connotation. She is from is different, but there is just as much a contrasts with the hardness of a triangle, Wallace Collection in London. Circa Venezuela, just like Javier Téllez. When contradiction between two worldviews and which spatially makes an architectural Tabac creates a total fragmentation of the we first saw the video, the destruction at the same time a visual uniformity. point. There is also a field of tension in it form. Everything is segmented, falls apart of the land was already visible. In a very that is always present in the Baroque. again, and this effect is emphasised even iconic way, you see a stuffed lion that is We will introduce On Kawara to the further because the work itself is a mirror. carried and touched by extras, dressed as exhibition with his Date Paintings. That A grand piano on the floor with blue The cinematic aspect is present here in an police officers, through the shanti towns. is the Kawara who everyone knows. Later, glass on top, this work by Jan Vercruysse extreme, repetitive form. It is also present The element of decay has an almost epic he reappears with earlier, lesser-known immediately catches the eye. Through in the physical relationship between the quality. The entire exhibition takes place work. The Date Paintings can be under- the choice of material, the surface reflects viewer and what is, or is not, visible when within the concept of monumentality. stood from a minimalist and conceptual a sense of inertia, which is present in the you look at the sculpture from a distance. This is, in fact, a common thread that point of view, but at the same time, they concept of fame, of notoriety.