Opening on Saturday, October 29 the gallery will present an exhibition of new paintings by Belgian artist Luc Tuymans. The show is entitled "Superstition".
This will be Luc Tuymans' first one-person exhibition in the United States. In Europe, his recent exhibitions include Dokumenta IX in Kassel, Germany; as well shows at Museum Hans Lange, Krefeld; Hayward Gallery, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; and Kunsthalle Bern. Before coming to the gallery, the exhibition "Superstition" was first shown at the Kunsthalle Portikus, run by Kasper König in Frankfurt, Germany. The Portikus has produced a catalog for this exhibition which will be available at the gallery.
In his paintings, Luc Tuymans uses a muted palette that shuns bright primary colors. He chooses to work on small to medium scale canvasses. Due to the total absence of spectacle, the work demands a thorough investigation and will not give itself away on a superficial reading. The work is highly painterly, the brushwork is explicit, simple, and direct–it reveals the process of making.
Luc Tuymans' paintings investigate the limits of representation and the limits of the image. They aim at subject matters that are deeply rooted in our subconscious and our collective memory. Often these subject matters are so complex, that imagery alone will most certainly fail to sufficiently express its totality. Rather than creating a narrative, a lament or an attempt to moralize, the work searches to evoke an intensely emotional state that strikes at the heart of its subject matters. Thus, readings of Luc Tuymans' work are bound to be highly subjective.
In the upcoming months, Luc Tuymans' work will be seen in North America with one-person exhibitions at the following venues: the Renaissance Society in Chicago; the Moore College of Art, Philadelphia; and McDonald Stewart Art Center, York University, Toronto.