Volume 1: 1978–1994
2017
A catalogue raisonné of paintings by Luc Tuymans is available from David Zwirner Books. Compiled and edited by art historian Eva Meyer-Hermann, the catalogue raisonné illustrates and document approximately five hundred paintings by the artist from 1975 to the present day. Volume 1 of 3 was published in 2017.
Credited with a key role in the revival of painting in the 1990s, Tuymans continues to produce subtle, and at times unsettling, works that engage with history, technology, and everyday life. This first volume in the catalogue raisonné surveys nearly 200 works that were vital to his artistic development. The years 1978 to 1994 witnessed the maturation of his signature method of painting from preexisting imagery—such as magazine images, Polaroids, and television footage—as well as his first solo exhibition. Also dating from this period are many of his seminal canvases, along with ten poignant portraits of the ailing human body and Gaskamer and Schwarzheide (both 1986), which were part of the artist's first solo exhibition in 1988, to Die Zeit (1988), a four-part work shown in his critically acclaimed Documenta presentation in 1992.
The catalogue features an introductory essay by Eva Meyer-Hermann and an illustrated chronology with archival images and installation shots of the works in this volume, as well as new photographs of each of the paintings. This publication is a testament to Tuymans's persistent assertion of the relevance and importance of painting—a conviction that he maintains even in today's digital world, when his work continues to be a touchstone for artists and scholars.
Published by David Zwirner Books | Yale University Press