The influential artist Luc Tuymans was recently back at David Zwirner, which was presenting an exhibition of the artist’s latest paintings, on view at the London gallery, which Tuymans inaugurated in October 2012 with the exhibition ‘Allo!’. The exhibition ‘The Shore’ includes work that the artist specifically made for the space. Tuymans is known for his light washed-out canvases, handled with the artist’s characteristic short stabbing brushstrokes, Tuymans’ subjects are varied, from the Holocaust to the banality of wallpaper patterns. The artist is one of Europe’s most influential painters – and the exhibition featured some rather dark subject matters – a portrait of Japanese killer Issei Sagawa, and ‘The Shore’, a ‘really dark’ painting of a German submarine crew about to be shot.
Luc Tuymans was kind enough to give Artlyst a tour of his new exhibition of paintings, which were created as a direct response to David Zwirner’s ‘domestic’ space. In this first part of his tour, the artist gave a detailed summation of his new works, explaining his fascination with wallpaper, what the artist finds annoying to paint, and alluding to the disquieting images that lie on the top floor of David Zwirner’s Gallery.
The Belgian artist was also found guilty of copyright infringement, after losing a legal battle in his home country over the alleged plagiarism concerning a portrait the artist created in 2011, Tuymans concluded his tour with a frank discussion about the case, its politics, and its wider implications to the art world and the fate of the painting which caused the controversy.
Audio: Luc Tuymans. Photo: P C Robinson © Artlyst 2015 all rights reserved