Luc Tuymans

Images and sources

Luc Tuymans' career in the Belgian art world was launched by three exhibitions in the small Antwerp gallery Ruimte Morguen in 1988 and 1989. His first solo show at the Palais des Thermes in Ostend in 1985 had gone completely unnoticed. In Ruimte Morguen, iconic paintings such as “Gaskamer” (“Gas Chamber”) (1986) and “Schwarzheide” (1986) were on display, as well as the present painting “Grafiek” (“Graph”) (1987). In these artworks, Tuymans addresses the themes of Holocaust and Nazism. Its depiction was a taboo in the 80s, but the artist saw it necessary to draw attention to this recent past.

Tuymans creates an art that is figurative, but not narrative. Instead, he explores how images can be layered and carriers of meaning. The artist starts from existing pictures from various sources in which he questions history and its representation. Tuymans applies a precise visual strategy that reflects the moral complexity of the subject. By result his paintings are restrained in a muted palette reminiscent of a blurry or fading memory. However, the title is important. Without the title you only see an alienating canvas.

“Grafiek” is actually a very 'poor' image. The composition is decentralized and is not pictorial. The palette is limited to shades of grey, forms are only schematic. Neither time nor space is indicated. Although the composition is undefined, it evokes a vague familiarity - but accompanied by a hint of menace. The image is veiled, hovering between memory and reality. The connection between canvas and viewer remains one of cool distance.

The graph’s variables are invisible. We only see a downward line aggravated by ominous darkness. Unsteady shapes and uneven tones create a disturbing aura that underlines the weight of the history the image represents. The banality of the subject, a graph, shockingly contrasts with the horror of the Holocaust to which it refers. Tuymans depicts a historical association that serves as a source for the memory of an event. He does not literally show the topic itself. After all, it is about the worst thing humans can do to each other. The worst thing cannot be painted. It is unimaginable, and any image will always come too late.