Luc, I am your Father

Disclaimer: my title has nothing to do with what I wrote.

I’ll admit that I was late they day we went to the MCA and was unable to appropriately explore the Luc Tuymans show (I got off the bus early and therefore had to walk forever). However, the little I did get to see was enough to bring me back to further explore the exhibition. There were many pieces I was struck by, several I wanted to write about and one element that I decided to focus on. This element, that was very apparent through out all of Tuymans’ work, was the source material also on display.

His mock-ups of images, the Polaroid photographs he takes and even the Disney movies he saw as a child and documentaries that spurred his work as an adult, were all directly visible in the pieces he created. Although Tuymans turns the magic of the Disney animation into an imposing and dark series of paintings that speak directly about the twisted mentality underlying the Disney Empire, the influence of the fluid movement of the animation is distinguishable in his horizontal brush strokes and blending of colors. The image of Walt Disney, himself, hardly distinguishable from the focus of the painting, was taken from the iconic image of Disney standing with the plans for the Epcot park. Our inability to immediately recognize the image of Walt Disney gives the piece an eerie sense of the uncanny.

The Polaroid photographs turn into beautifully crafted images, slight abstractions of the original that create a specific feeling and become emotionally and in some cases, politically charged. The lighting of his series of paintings of random objects and moments that struck his interest appear to have been lit by a flash, the image of his wife’s arms in black elbow length gloves with hands cradling white chalk is displayed as a Polaroid image and as a painting, allowing the viewer to experience Tuymans’ process as well. The images of illnesses retain the gritty lighting and angles of medical documentation, but are softened in his use of color and painting techniques, connecting them to the portraits that surround them. I really enjoyed being able to draw connections between his source material and the completed paintings and I wish that this part of the exhibition were included in more shows.