Last week after hearing the hype about the Luc Tuymans display at the Wexner Center I decided to check it out for myself. I have to admit, I was not familiar with Tuymans work prior to viewing the exhibition so I decided to do a little research on the artist; below is a cheat sheet for you non-artists out there.
Luc Tuymans- photo courtesty of http://www.wexarts.org/
Luc Tuymans- Contemporary Belgium artist.
Medium: photography, filmmaking, and painting. The Wexner exhibit features series of his oil paintings.
Common Themes in His Work: history, memory, pop cultural events, collective memory i.e. major events, like that impact the memory of large groups of people or society as a whole.
After reading up on Mr. Tuymans I was anxious to see his work. In general, his paintings look very ordinary. They don’t have any awe inspiring characteristics. Upon closer examination, the paintings are very creative. His work is like a snap shot from a moment in time; taken out of context the images appear confusing. This is the beauty of his work: The audience is forced to critically examine his paintings to figure out what Tuymans is portraying. Most of the work he presents has some sort of theme behind it. In the Wexner exhibit he tackles topics ranging from the Holocaust and the Congo, to 9/11 and Walt Disney.
My favorite section in the exhibit are the Proper series of paintings. Created in 2005, the pieces provide commentary on how America has changed since 9/11. He explores politics and the changing societial norms in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. Somewhat controversial, these paintings force us to think about how we have changed, right or wrong, as a nation.
Ballroom Dancing, 2005 - Image courtesy of http://www.wexarts.org/
This exhibit will be at the Wexner Center now through January 3, 2010. It is only making four stops in the U.S. and Columbus is lucky to be one of these, so make sure you go see the exhibit before it leaves!
