Luc Tuymans

June 6–September 5, 2010
Hoffman Galleries

The first U.S. retrospective of the work of Belgian artist Luc Tuymans—and the most comprehensive presentation of his work to date—will come to the Dallas Museum of Art on June 6 after opening at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, and then traveling to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Jointly organized by SFMOMA and the Wexner Center, Luc Tuymans spans every phase of the artist's career and features approximately 80 key paintings from 1985 to the present.

Luc Tuymans (b. 1958) is considered one of the most significant European figures of his generation and he has been an enduring influence on younger and emerging artists for his brilliantly enigmatic and deceptively simple figurative paintings. Born and raised in Antwerp, where he lives and works, Tuymans is an inheritor to the grand tradition of Northern European painting. At the same time, as a child of the post-war media era, his relationship to the painting medium is understandably influenced by photography, television and cinema.

Luc Tuymans will be organized in chronological order, highlighting the fluid progression of the artist’s work. The retrospective reunites the paintings in groupings originally set out by the artist, thus restoring the intended dialogue among the works. The presentation will also demonstrate that although Tuymans remains loyal to the medium of painting, his tendency to work in suites and at an ever-larger scale have made it imperative to consider him in the light of current installation and site-specific practices.

The retrospective is co-curated by Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (and SFMOMA's former Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture), and Helen Molesworth, Maisie K. and James R. Houghton Curator of Contemporary Art at the Harvard Art Museum (and former chief curator of exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts). Charles Wylie, The Lupe Murchison Curator of Contemporary Art, is the coordinating curator of the Dallas presentation of Luc Tuymans. The exhibition concludes its tour at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and is accompanied by a definitive catalogue.

Images:

Luc Tuymans, Der Diagnostische Blick V, 1992, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mevr. F. Vranckx © Luc Tuymans; photo: courtesy Zeno X Gallery

Luc Tuymans, Orchid, 1998, oil on canvas, Collection of Marsha and Jay Seeman © Luc Tuymans; photo: Felix Tirry, courtesy David Zwirner, New York