Luc Tuymans

Luc Tuymans (born 1958 in Mortsel, Belgium) is a Belgian painter. He lives and works in Antwerp.

Biography

Tuymans spent his childhood in Antwerp. He is the child of a Dutch woman whose family was active in the resistance against the Nazis; the family of the father, however, was connected to the Nazis. The consequent controversies influenced Tuymans as well as his memories of a school, which was marked by abuse and violence at the hands of his classmates.

From 1976 to 1982 Tuymans first studied fine arts in order to devote himself thereafter to 1986, the study of art history. In the mid-1980s also covered the first fundamental works by Tuymans, which were created figurative contrary the then artistic movements and reveal a remarkable visual language and aesthetics: in repossessed colors themed Tuymans historical and political events and Court questioned the credibility of images and visual media in terms of our historical memory.

1992 Luc Tuymans was known for his performance at the documenta IX in Kassel to an international audience and introduced since then in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe, America and Asia. With the presentation of his works in the Belgian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and with the renewed participation in Documenta 11 in the following year, Tuymans definitively established as one of the most sought after and influential artists of his generation. Accordingly, his work has since been increasingly shown in retrospective -scale exhibitions, to which the Tuymans presentations in the K21 in Dusseldorf and at the Tate Modern in London and in the Műcsarnok - Kunsthalle in Budapest, the Haus der Kunst in Munich and the National Art Gallery Zachęta can be expected in Warsaw.

Currently, the work of Tuymans is shown in an extensive survey exhibition in America, until 2011 the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, the Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art touring in Chicago.

Reception

The singular visual language and aesthetics of Tuymans as well as adherence to figurative image content contributed significantly to the onset in the late 1990s, the discourse on new forms of painting. With the redeemed color and the directness of his image contents, he influenced a whole generation of younger artists, including in particular Wilhelm Sasnal and Eberhard Havekost are to be counted.

Works in public collections

According to the art historical significance of Tuymans the works of the painter received, inter alia, entered the collections of the following museums: Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Tate Modern, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Francois Pinault Collection, Venice; Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Goetz Collection, Munich; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; De Pont Foundation, Tilburg; Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht; Museum van Hedendaagse Art ( MuHKA ), Antwerp; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Art, Ghent; Art Museum Bremerhaven.