I haven't had the chance to go back to the Luc Tuymans exhibition but deadlines are deadlines so I will go ahead and write this thing regardless. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised. I expected to be underwhelmed. Having only seen his paintings via the internet I expected to be left wanting more. I do not often encounter small scale paintings that can convey emotion as well as his did (and sometimes more effectively than his larger works ).
I am a fan of bright colors but was more than satisfied with Tuymans' muted dreamlike color palette. It gave a feeling of faded photographs and faded memories. Certain compositions reminded me of the types of photographs we don't often encounter in this digital age where we can easily discard an accidental picture of an empty living room or an underexposed photo of a relative by simply pushing the delete button.
I did not take note of specific titles because it was my intention to have the pleasure of a more leisurely visit before having to write about the work, but I do remember enjoying the small paintings of single objects in his grayed out colors (his grays are never really gray just deafeningly muted browns reds greens blues etc.) Those pieces felt like stolen moments of dreams or quick flashes of fading memories.
Several of the paintings in the "the architect" series were quieting in a curious way. They felt heavy with mood and when contextualized by their background information/source material were deeply chilling.
Overall I liked the exhibition very much and am looking forward to going back.
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