Luc Tuymans: Retrospective

The ex­hi­bit­ion is re­a­li­zed in the co­ope­ra­ti­on of Mű­csar­nok, Bu­da­pest, Za­che­ta, War­saw, and the Haus der Kunst of Mu­nich. Mű­csar­nok will be the first art hall in Cent­ral and Ea­s­tern Euro­pe to host an ex­hi­bit­ion by Luc Tuy­mans, who is cons­idered, by art his­to­ri­ans and coll­ec­tors alike, to be one of the most im­por­tant li­ving pain­ters. The show will then tra­vel to War­saw and Mu­nich. Bes­ides the va­lu­ab­le works, the Bu­da­pest ex­hi­bit­ion will also boast a sen­sa­ti­o­nal, uni­que att­rac­ti­on: Luc Tuy­mans will crea­te a spe­ci­al, site-spe­ci­fic mural for Mű­csar­nok.

Luc Tuy­mans was born in 1958, in Mortsel, Bel­gi­um. Anyth­ing but a con­vent­io­nal ar­tist, Tuy­mans, who now lives and works in Ant­werp, has crea­ted a dis­tinct style, and has ins­pi­red a whole ge­ne­ra­ti­on of pain­ters. Tho­ugh for a time he aban­don­ed the brush for the sake of film, his cre­a­tive ge­ni­us even­tu­ally re­turned to paint­ing, whose idiom he has comp­let­ely trans­for­med. While respect­ful of the va­ri­o­us pain­terly tra­di­tions, Tuy­mans uses his own can­vas­es to meld paint­ing with photo- and film-ins­pi­red con­tem­por­ary vi­su­al tho­ught. Luc Tuy­mans si­mul­ta­ne­o­usly imp­res­ses the mind and the sen­ses. His mys­te­ri­o­us pic­tu­res, ope­rat­ing with un­der­sta­ted co­lo­urs, tend to hyp­no­ti­ze the vie­wer. His vast can­vas­es, which often rep­re­sent only de­ta­ils of ob­jects, exp­lo­de the ca­re­fully ob­ser­ved sight into mo­nu­men­tal vi­sions; his small pic­tu­res, also fea­tu­red at the com­ing show in Mű­csar­nok, usu­ally con­den­se mo­nu­men­tal sights. The key to Luc Tuy­mans’ im­pact is his di­rec­ti­on of at­tent­ion and ref­lec­ti­on. Wi­dely tra­vel­led, the ar­tist finds imp­r­es­si­vely va­ried rep­re­s­en­ta­tions for his ideas: the ima­ges are usu­ally rep­re­s­en­ta­tions of ob­jects, per­sons, spa­ces or lands that are re­la­ted to the sub­ject in quest­ion, but Tuy­mans char­ges them with new me­anings, trans­forms them with new modes of paint­ing. His art is based on ex­ten­sive re­se­arch he car­ri­es out about is­sues of so­ci­al and cul­t­u­ral his­to­ry. His key works, which disp­lay a unity of the­o­re­ti­cal, aest­he­tic and moral va­lues, con­cern a num­ber of ge­ne­ral sub­jects. He deals with the ti­me­li­ness or dec­line of paint­ing; the prob­lems of rep­re­sent­ing time, tran­sien­ce, sym­bols and every­day events; the issue whet­her power and his­to­ry are per­so­nal or im­per­so­nal. Re­cog­ni­ti­on of the wes­tern art world came for Luc Tuy­mans with the Do­cu­men­ta 9 fes­ti­val (Kas­sel) in 1992, which rep­re­sen­ted him as an ar­tist at the ze­nith of his ca­re­er. Since then, his works have be­co­me the tre­a­sure of the most im­por­tant pri­vate and pub­lic coll­ec­tions from Mu­nich to Los An­ge­les, and he has been fea­tu­red at the ex­hi­bit­ions of the most inf­lu­en­ti­al gal­le­ri­es (Ins­ti­tu­te of Con­tem­por­ary Art, Lon­don; CAPC Mus­e­eé d’art con­tem­po­ra­in de Bor­deaux; White Cube, Lon­don; David Zwir­ner Gal­lery, New York; Ve­ni­ce Bi­en­nale; Pi­na­kot­hek der Mo­der­ne, Mu­nich; Hel­sin­ki Kun­sthal­le; Tate Mo­dern, Lon­don; K 21, Düs­sel­dorf). Pre­sent­ing the world-fa­mous Bel­gi­an ar­tist in this par­ti­cu­lar re­gi­on of Euro­pe has a spe­ci­al re­le­vance, be­ca­u­se his cre­a­tive con­cept cen­ters on rem­em­bering and his­to­ry. Open from De­cem­ber 15, this disp­lay, which pro­vi­des an over­view of Luc Tuy­mans’ work, marks not only a truly exc­lu­sive event in the art life of Bu­da­pest, but a tur­ning point in the life of Mű­csar­nok as well: it tes­ti­fi­es the int­ent­ion to open its doors be­fo­re the stars of con­tem­por­ary art, to bring those ar­tists to the Hun­ga­ri­an pub­lic who can be re­gar­ded the sha­pers of art today.