Luc Tuymans
Born 1958, Mortsel, Belgium
Lives and works in Antwerp

A number of the paintings on view are from Luc Tuymans’s cycle The Passion, which explores how even the most profound experiences can be leached of precision and meaning in re-presentation. Each canvas in this series is based on a brochure photograph from a modern enactment of a Passion play that Tuymans attended with his parents in the 1970s in southern Germany. The paintings retain the characteristics of the photographs that are their source. Their cropping, unfocused lines, and faded color convey the artist’s memory of a long-past event and suggest a sense of loss.

Luc Tuymans, Christ, 1998, oil on canvas, 48 1/4 x 22 13/16 inches (122.5 x 58 cm)

Luc Tuymans, Judas, 1999, oil on canvas, 17 5/7 x 12 2/5 inches (45 x 31.5 cm)

Luc Tuymans responds to questions in the Artists of the Week section of this site.

Luc Tuymans’s paintings have been featured in numerous international group exhibitions since 1988, including Ripple across the Water, Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, and Change of Scene VII, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (1995); Face à l’Histoire, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and Painting—The Extended Field, Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, and Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall (1996-97); and Future, Past, Present, 1965-1997, 47th Venice Biennale and Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon (1997). Solo gallery exhibitions of Tuymans’s work have been presented at Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp (annually between 1990 and 1997, and in 1999) and at David Zwirner, New York (1994, 1996, 1998). Solo museum shows include Creux de l’Enfer, Centre d’art contemporain, Thiers (1991); Kunsthalle Bern (1992); Portikus Frankfurt am Main (1994); De Pont Foundation, Tilburg, and Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (1995); Kunstmuseum, Bern, and Berkeley Art Museum, California (1997); CapcMusée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux (1998); and Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (1999). In 1999 Luc Tuymans curated the exhibition Trouble Spot at Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp.

Education
1976-79 Sint-Lukasinstituut, Brussels

1979-80 École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre, Brussels

1980-82 Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, Antwerp

1982-86 Vrije Universiteit, Brussels

Selected Further Reading
Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, Netherlands, and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany. The Purge (1999). Exhibition catalogue, concept by Luc Tuymans and Alexander van Grevenstein.

Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Spain. Luc Tuymans/ Mirosllaw Ballka: Privacy (1998). Exhibition catalogue, texts by Julian Heyman, Alexandre Melo, and Vicente Todol’.            

Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland; Berkeley Art Museum, California; and CapcMusée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux, France. Prémonition: Luc Tuymans (1997-98). Exhibition catalogue, texts by Josef Helfenstein, Hans Rudolf Reust, and Lawrence Rinder.

Loock, Ulrich, Juan Vicente Aliaga, and Nancy Spector. Luc Tuymans. London: Phaidon, 1996.

Art Gallery of York University, Toronto, Canada; Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Goldie Paley Gallery, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Luc Tuymans (1994). Exhibition catalogue, texts by Gregory Salzman, Peter Schjeldahl, Luc Tuymans and Robert Van Ruyssevelt, and Hans Rudolf Reust.