Description

This catalogue is published to accompany the major Tuymans exhibition opening in Doha, Qatar, in October 2015. Spanning some thirty years of the artist's career, Intolerance speaks to abiding preoccupations long mined by the Belgian painter in response to a rapidly changing world. Aware from the outset of his career that painting as an art form was in crisis, and recognizing that the role and ubiquity of the image in contemporary culture was shifting in reponse to technological developments, Tuymans took a fighting stance. In a contrarian move, painting became for him a vehicle through which the most urgent and volatile issues - whether relating to history, identity, nationalism and belief, or to social and political events - could be eloquently probed. This ambitious retrospective includes an interview by the curator of the exhibition, Lynne Cooke, essays by Jan Avgikos and Nick Cullinan, and catalogue entries by Donna Wingate. Organized around key themes in Tuymans' stringent practice, it will cast new light on Luc Tuymans' singular trajectory.