Luc TuymansThe Occupied Heart

This Galleri Star presentation of Luc Tuymans was a testimony to how seriously the Kunstlaboratorium takes contemporary art.

Fame is a relative value. Belgian Luc Tuymans (b. 1958) belongs in the international elite of contemporary art. In a Norwegian context, however, he was (relatively) unknown in 2008. He is known as part of the new wave of figurative painters who came to prominence at a time when ‘everyone’ believed the death of painting was an irrefutable fact.

The exhibition of ten of his paintings in a variety of sizes carried the title The Occupied Heart. In the catalogue, curator Ken Pratt considers the ways Tuymans processes memories of the huge war that devastated Europe in the 1940s. It would be too superficial, however, to only see them in this light. Tuymans’ art has several layers.

Participating artists

• Luc Tuymans