Luc Tuymans (Contemporary Artists (Phaidon)) [Paperback]

Ulrich Loock (Author)

Book Description

Series: Contemporary Artists (Phaidon) | Publication Date: October 1, 2003

Tuymans' monochromatic palette and choice of subject matter - domestic interiors, commonplace objects or family portraits - link painting with post-war filmmaking and amateur photography. The sources of other images on his canvases give his work a brooding violence. Although modest in scale and sensitive in execution, this work is powerful in its haunting evocation of lost lives and repressed histories. In general Tuymans' works are painted in groups for each show and with the venue and the exhibition space in mind. For example, when he represented his country in the Belgian Pavilion at the 2001 Venice Biennial, Tuymans produced a cycle of works based on the murder of the first post-independence Prime Minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba. Other works in the cycle show images of African sculpture copies from a statue in a Belgian restaurant and images from the Belgian Royal Museum's African collection. These works raised issues about colonialism and post-colonialism, but also came at a time when a parliamentary commission was investigating the links between the Belgian government and royal family's policies and the death of Lumumba.

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press; Rev Exp edition (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714842982
• ISBN-13: 978-0714842981
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 9.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,043,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Psychoanalytical Illuminations of Luc Tuymans, June 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Luc Tuymans (Contemporary Artists (Phaidon)) (Paperback)

This book on Luc Tuymans is an excellent introduction to the strange world of this internationally reknowned Belgian Painter. What is it that stirs up the bizarre fascination of cognoscenti for this artist? At the very least, it is attributable to the deeply psychological expression that this artist conjures from his sometimes murky palatte, as well as his subject matter. He addresses these ideas in relation to living as an artist in this modern world and a Freudian psychoanalysis of history that seems all to prevalent in this information age; including, everything from the New York art world as evidenced in his painting "Heritage", which alludes to Jasper Johns flag painting and the Holocaust in paintings like "Our New Quarters". This artist also takes these issues to subjects like the body, which through his investigation and isolation of its various parts he formulates the queerness that follows a banal rendition of the functions of that space. In addtion, as a psychoanalytical historian this artist attempts to fuse the mundanity of the conscious world with the fanatsy of the world of dream, which always seems to be off center, and could be related to the work of Alex Katz and Robert Gober. At any rate, this book provides an excellent insight into the world created by Luc Tuymans, and comes highly recommneded by art lovers and aficianados alike.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars VERY USEFUL., February 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Luc Tuymans (Contemporary Artists (Phaidon)) (Paperback)

The illustrations in the book are very fine. The interview with the artist gives more insight into his work than any of the writings in the book including his own. There is a good deal of critical double talk and bullshit, but biographical information, and useful details seem to slip through as well.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At times a bland palette becomes supernatural in meaning, January 13, 2011

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Luc Tuymans (Contemporary Artists (Phaidon)) (Paperback)

Luc Tuymans, born 1958, is a Belgian artist who remains one of the most influential artists of the day. To the casual observer his paintings may seem unfinished, mere sketches for something more thoroughly thought through. But that is his signature - a very bland, nearly monochromatic palette that captures faces, figurative works, interiors of contemporary homes or buildings and makes them seem simultaneously vague as though viewed through veils of memory or curtains of time and immediate - and demanding our attention to the detail at times left unpainted.

This book may not be the definitive volume on his career to date, but it does supply information from the artist's words that is sadly lacking in other publications. He offers insights as to his choices of subject matter without denying that he often works with images that suggest if not illustrate violence. His images often are reproductions of the faces of well known people - such as Condoleeza Rice and Lumumba - capturing the aspect of the various 'models' he chooses to present the unspoken words they may be forming. He is unafraid to make painterly comments that are politically charged - a factor that helps make his art so poignant in today's world. He is a painter to observe and this fine book gives a solid introduction to his creativity. Grady Harp, January 11