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Luc Tuymans

The Return

29 June - 17 Nov 2019
work in collection

In 1995 De Pont Museum held the first exhibition of work by Luc Tuymans in the Netherlands. This summer the now world-famous Belgian artist will be coming back to Tilburg with a second retrospective, which he has aptly titled The Return.
The exhibition, which has been compiled in very close collaboration with the artist, will comprise about fifty paintings spanning the period from 1975 until the present. This includes several recent works that have not been shown before.

The Return is one of the two major Tuymans exhibitions to be held in Europe this summer. In addition to the presentation at De Pont, he has his first solo show in Italy, La Pelle, at Palazzo Grassi in Venice.

When he first started out as an artist, Luc Tuymans (Mortsel, 1958) was mainly concerned with film, but gradually he developed an interest in painting. For quite some time he worked outside the limelight, until the late 1980s, when he felt it was time to make his debut. Success came rather quickly, particularly after his participation in the 1992 documenta organized by Jan Hoet. In his early paintings there is often an intimation of violence which, though unseen, brews beneath the surface. In later works the reference to this become less explicit, yet his paintings continue to evoke a certain awkwardness in the viewer. His work remains seductive, and while we may come close to its possible connotations, its secret will never be revealed entirely.

Watch here the film about the making of this exhibition.