Zeno X Gallery is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a series of exhibitions that shed light on the different decades of the gallery. From April 2 onwards, '40 YEARS Zeno X Gallery: the nineties' presents the seven artists who joined the gallery in the 1990s: Luc Tuymans (1990), Marlene Dumas (1993), Mark Manders (1994), Cristof Yvoré (1994), Anton Corbijn (1996), Dirk Braeckman (1999) and Johannes Kahrs (1999). The show brings historical works into dialogue with recent pieces created specially for this exhibition.

Zeno X Gallery is pleased to present the new solo exhibition of Luc Tuymans, titled Seconds.

The exhibition centres on four monumental canvases on which numbers are painted. The almost light-emitting figures seem to float in a dark space. The background is so rich in colours – painted in many shades of violet and indigo – that it seems as if the numbers are vibrating on a TV screen. The numbers are in fact based on film stills the artist made from his own films from the 1980s. A few months ago, he first painted the numbers in gouache on paper, but then immediately came upon the idea of realizing these graphic images on a large scale on canvas. The format of the works has both an immersive and cinematic impact on viewers.

Numbers have always been an important motif in the oeuvre of Luc Tuymans. In the 1970s, he glued the days of a tear-off calendar on the front of his canvases to organize them, and in the 1980s he made drawings based on numbers that he filmed with his Super 8 camera. The artist is interested in the tension that emerges between the concrete reality of the numbers and the fictional character of what is depicted. The monumentality of the works was moreover inspired by a visit to the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. The other paintings in the exhibition capture stilled moments. Intermission and The Stage show the empty stage, the interval during a theatre performance. These are moments of inactivity that also contain great tension. It is no coincidence that the current pandemic has a similar effect: life seems to be on pause and we just have to wait and see what the post-Covid world will look like.

With this exhibition, Luc Tuymans is seeking to create pertinent images in the midst of a global crisis. The numbers are at once abstract and concrete, but also universal. They seem to be counting down to something new and refer to the statistical reality with which we are constantly confronted by the media. During the lockdown, the artist created several short animation films lasting a few seconds, all of which were titled Seconds. The intensive and time-consuming process of animating series of gouaches was probably only possible thanks to the time that was suddenly available.

At the back of the gallery Luc Tuymans is showing his most recent animated film, titled Happy Birthday. The series of drawings on which this film is based can also be seen in the gallery. The film depicts an inflatable duck on which a laser show is projected. The light and comical character of this work stands in stark contrast to the physical size and metaphysical gravity of the paintings.

Luc Tuymans has had solo presentations at De Pont in Tilburg (2019), Palazzo Grassi in Venice (2019), National Portrait Gallery in London (2016), LaM in Lille (2016), MAS in Antwerp (2016), Qatar Museums in Doha (2015), The Menil Collection in Houston (2013), BOZAR in Brussels (2011), MCA Chicago (2010), Dallas Museum of Art (2010), SFMOMA in San Francisco (2010), Moderna Museet in Malmö (2009), WIELS in Brussels (2009), Haus der Kunst in Munich (2008), Museu Serralves in Porto (2006), MAMCO in Geneva (2006), K21 in Düsseldorf (2004), Tate Modern in London (2004), FRAC Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand (2003), Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2003), and many more.

In 1990 Tuymans had his first exhibition, Suspended, in Zeno X Gallery, at the time still in the space opposite the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. This was followed by the exhibitions Disenchantment (1991), Der diagnostische Blick (1992), Intolerance (1993), At Random (1994), Heimat (1995), Necklace (1996), Illegitimate (1997), The Passion (1999), The Promise (2000), NIKS (2003), Les Gilles de Binche (2005), Les Revenants (2007), The Twenty Seventh of January Two Thousand and Eleven (2011), Twice (2013) with Marlene Dumas, and Scramble (2016), on the occasion of  his 25-year collaboration with Zeno X Gallery. 

Zeno X Gallery is pleased to present Scramble, the new exhibition by Luc Tuymans that will illuminate twenty-five years of collaboration with the gallery. Ten new and fourteen historical works are presented in alternation throughout the four exhibition rooms. A new catalogue also provides a splendid overview of the sixteen exhibitions that Tuymans has made at Zeno X.

Scramble shows a crumpled piece of paper from an advertising supplement with foodstuffs. The small, colorful prop – in stark contrast to the dark background – is enlarged to such monumental proportions that it seems to acquire a new status. The work also supplied the title of the exhibition – a reference to the combination of new and less recent works.

During installation of the show Nice: Luc Tuymans in the Menil Collection in Houston in 2013, Tuymans  re-photographed every portrait present with his iPhone. This resulted in the four new portraits entitled Insert I, II, III & IV. The portrait Insert I, for example, is a close-up of the work Petrus & Paulus (1998), and Insert II a detail of the painting Frank (2003), after a Polaroid Tuymans made of Frank Demaegd in his car. Insert III refers to the portrait that Tuymans painted in 1994 of the well-known Nazi Joachim von Ribbentrop. Insert IV, finally, is based on the triptych Käthe Grüsse of 1990. The intensity of the portraits arises from the three layers of reality that are captured in each image: the original painting, the flattened reality of the iPhone photo, and the physical reality of the new painting. In this way Tuymans retraces his own steps and meta-reflects on his own oeuvre.

Brokaat depicts the richly decorated gown of St Donatian in the painting Madonna with Canon Joris van der Paele (1436) by Jan Van Eyck. Tuymans has often stressed that the influence of and his appreciation for Van Eyck is greater than that for Baroque painters like Rubens, Van Dyck, and Jordaens, who are held in such high regard in his hometown Antwerp.

Mountains seems to depict a particular landscape, but in reality it is based on a model made by the artist himself, consisting of aluminum foil and heaps of potting soil. Like the work The Louvre, which depicts the eponymous museum, both works play with scale. The photographed image acts as an intermediary and enhances confusion as to the actual size of the subject. Both images are moreover constructed, in the form of a ‘still life’ and a simulation of the museum in its primal form, taken from a documentary.

Green Light is based on a photo that offers a glimpse of an interior through a window. The flash of the photo and the reflection occupy – as is often the case – a prominent place on the canvas. Tuymans often uses light to conceal his subjects rather than highlight them. The flash of the camera also betrays the contemporary layer in his work and underscores the current omnipresence of the screen standing between reality and us.

The Priest is an image cut out of a religious poster depicting hands and holy water. Christian iconography has turned out to be an important motif – not only in this exhibition, but in his entire oeuvre.

In 1990 Tuymans had his first exhibition, Suspended, in Zeno X Gallery when it was still in the space opposite the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp. It was followed by the exhibitions Disenchantment (1991), Der Diagnostische Blick (1992), Intolerance (1993), At Random (1994), Heimat (1995), Necklace (1996), Illegitimate (1997), The Passion (1999), The Promise (2000), NIKS (2003), Les Gilles de Binche (2005), Les Revenants (2007), The Twenty Seventh of January Two Thousand and Eleven (2011), and Twice (2013), together with Marlene Dumas.

Later this year he will have exhibitions at LAM Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut in Lille and the National Portrait Gallery in London. He will also participate in the 9th Biennale of Montréal. In addition, he is organizing an exhibition on the work of James Ensor at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Currently on view until September 18 at the MAS in Antwerp is a solo exhibition entitled Glasses. Tuymans has also had solo exhibitions at the Qatar Museums in Doha (2015), Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh (2015), the Menil Collection in Houston (2013), Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus (2011), BOZAR in Brussels (2011), SFMOMA in San Francisco (2010), Dallas Museum of Art (2010), Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (2010), Moderna Museet in Malmö (2009), Wiels in Brussels (2009), Haus der Kunst in Munich (2008), Kunsthalle Budapest (2007), Fundação de Serralves in Porto (2006), Tate Modern in London (2004), Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2003), Kunstverein Hannover (2003), Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (2001), etc.

We are very proud to announce our upcoming exhibition of works by Marlene Dumas and Luc Tuymans. This is the third exhibition in our new gallery space, which was renovated by the Belgian architects Coussée & Goris.

Since 1993 works by Marlene Dumas (°1953, Cape Town) and Luc Tuymans (°1958, Mortsel) have often been included in the same group exhibitions but they have never had a major presentation together. Now, for the first time ever, these two artists will be showing a complete body of work alongside each other in ‘TWICE’. 

Both artists have always paid special attention to the titles of their exhibitions. Currently work from 1978 until 2011 by Luc Tuymans is on view in a solo exhibition, ‘NICE. Luc Tuymans’, at the Menil Collection in Houston. Consequently ‘TWICE AS NICE’ seemed like a logical possible title for this joint exhibition. After a brief discussion the artists agreed to the title ‘TWICE’. Although they are exhibiting their work together, there is no general theme that connects their works. Dumas and Tuymans decided in advance to create no more than six works each in order to keep it compact. When you look at these two solo exhibitions together certain similarities and differences become even more apparent, which, in turn, stimulates the dialogue about painting.

Dumas and Tuymans each have a very different approach. Marlene Dumas does not have a pre-established plan when she starts to work on a new series. Her main focus gradually begins to take shape while she paints. Her approach tends to be organic, leaving space and time for coincidences and her creative process is very different from Tuymans’s. He clearly defines the concept for his exhibition, explores the theme and decides in advance what the paintings should look like. The actual painting process is concentrated, fast, structured and most of the work is done in one day.

Both artists have an ambiguous relation to the photographic, cinematographic or painted image and its meaning. According to Marlene Dumas:

The Artwork as Misunderstanding                   
There is a crisis with regard to representation.
They are looking for meaning as if it was a thing.
As if it was a girl required to take her panty off.
As if she would want to do so, as soon as the true interpreter comes along.
As if there was something to take off.

Dumas also often refers to the notion of “couples” in art or pokes fun at male/female oppositional thinking:

I have painted more women than men
I paint women for men
I paint women for women
I paint the women of my men

Luc Tuymans always mistrusts images because they can be easily manipulated or taken out of context. The image is just a perception, an interpretation of the reality. Tuymans explains: ‘The small gap between the explanation of a picture and the picture itself provides the only possible perspective on painting. My comments refer only to its ambiguity’.

The idea for Tuymans’s new group of works originated in a small painting he made in 1987 of a cook. This work remained unfinished and ended up in his archives. For ‘TWICE’ he reused this old image but chose to create a large-scale painting. In ‘Cook’ we see a man stirring a liquid mass in a large pot. The man’s face is blurry either due to the steam emanating from the pot or because of a light that shines behind him. A chiaroscuro divides the painting in a dark and light mass. The background is darker and more difficult to define. The colours Tuymans uses are warm and vibrant, contrasting with Dumas’s cold and bright palette. Tuymans further explored the theme of the cook in ‘In the Kitchen’, ‘Good advice’ and ‘Containers’.

All these works are close-ups of a large photo he took in the kitchen of a famous old restaurant in Warsaw. It is a very masculine subject, with chefs often being portrayed as machos. The cook is a dominant figure who controls all the operations in the kitchen and who attaches great importance to a hierarchic structure. This ensemble elicits reflections on the representation of politics, monopoly and power.

‘Containers’ is the only work that has a more feminine feel to it. A group of cans and bottles have been arranged together as a still-life. But questions arise about their content. Do they belong in the kitchen? Or are they cosmetics for the bathroom?

‘Dad’s Heat’ features an old heater that Tuymans received from his father. The contrast between the cool background colours and the vibrant red tones give the impression of radiant warmth emanating from the appliance.

One work, ‘My Door I-VI’, is more autonomous. It is a series of six watercolours in which a dark background is lit up by a bright, white stain. This painting is based on several snapshots he took at home of a ray of sun falling onto a door. The painting’s subtle balance between figuration and abstraction creates an ambiguous impression of a mysterious cave.

Both Luc Tuymans and Marlene Dumas have created works with references to political and historical events. While Tuymans focused on the Belgian involvement in the assassination of Congo’s first president, Patrice Lumumba, in his previous series ‘Mwana Kitoko: Beautiful White Man’ (2000) Dumas is more interested in the apparent grief of Lumumba’s wife Pauline in a news image from 1961. In 1982 Dumas used this image in a collage called “3 vroue en ek’. In a new work, ‘The Widow’, she uses the same image again but now the woman even appears twice. Although the same scene is repeated in the diptych the mood is different. In the larger work, we zoom in closer to focus on the figure of Pauline Lumumba and the two men dressed in white on either side of her. She is bare-breasted as a sign of protest and mourning and provocative and vulnerable at the same time. In the small painting we zoom out to see the wider context. Now the relationship with the crowd and the military surroundings demand our attention. In ‘The Trophy’ Dumas also revisits an existing piece. It is another version of her work ‘The Woman of Algiers’ from 2001. The painting is based on a photo of a young naked girl held captive by two soldiers during the Algerian War of Independence in 1960. Dumas fell upon this image, which was published 40 years later in ‘L’ Express’ with censorship bars across her breasts and pubic area. In ‘Nuclear Family’ a family poses naked. Only the children are wearing underpants. It is the first time that Dumas paints a family, a harmonious group portrayed against the backdrop of a landscape that is steeped in unnatural light.

In the ‘The Artist and his Model’ Dumas again plays with the notion of twice, the second, the double and in this sense also with the title of this exhibition. She reflects on her position as an artist and the relation between the artist and the model. Here Luc Tuymans appears as her model. In the background we see a spectre of his model, the former Queen of the Netherlands, whom Tuymans painted. The work is in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and was officially presented to the public during the re-opening of the Stedelijk Museum in 2012.  In ‘Double’ we see her daughter, who has often been featured as a model in her body of work, now as a young woman, with her reflection, look-alike or double. The only painting to feature only one figure is ‘Missing Picasso’. But then again the title refers to a second presence, the master of ‘the female nude’.

Currently several of Marlene Dumas’s works are on show in the group exhibition ‘Prima Materia’ at Punta Della Dogana in Venice. In September 2014 the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam will host a retrospective of Marlene Dumas’s work. This major exhibition will travel to Tate Modern in London and the Beyeler Foundation in Basel.

Doha, the capital of Qatar, commissioned a gigantic mosaic by Luc Tuymans. The inauguration is scheduled for the end of 2015. A solo exhibition of Tuymans’s work will simultaneously be held at the Museum of Doha. Earlier Tuymans donated a mosaic of 1600 sq.m. for the square in front of the MAS museum in Antwerp. ‘Dead Skull’ is based on a memorial tablet for Quentin Massys (1466-1529), an important painter who founded the painters’ guild, which can be found on the wall next to the entrance of the Cathedral of Antwerp. Tuymans used this image before in a painting dating from 2002. This mosaic is Tuymans’s first public work to be permanently on display.