M HKA Ensembles

Painting, 403 x 600 cm.

Collection: Courtesy François Pinault Foundation, Venice.

Since 1980, Luc Tuymans (b. 1958) has brought figuration back to painting. His trademarks are an understated painting technique, strong stylization and a cinematic approach. The subjects of the paintings are treated in a way that can turn well-known historical events into a banal motif, or conversely, elevate the everyday to universal heights. Tuymans also works in many other media (publications, graphic work, film and polaroids), and is a prolific curator as well. For El Hotel Eléctrico, he contributes an in-situ wall painting and an aquatint sketch. Taken together, these components comprise a new version of Simulation (2007). The respective work is part of a series of paintings from Forever: The Management of Magic.(http://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibition/forever-the-management-of-magic/page/3/) The entire series addresses the utopian, artificial architectural reality of Disney World.

Simulation is a many-sided piece based on three parameters. First of all, Tuymans contextualizes the motif of the circle - a geometric figure that is prominently present in Disney's architectural vision of amusement parks. Here, a work by Tommy Simoens plays an important role. Simoens' piece bases itself on a 3D preliminary text for the film Where the Wild Things Are (John Lasseter, 1983). Tuymans' starting point is thus in part the work of a fellow artist. Finally, Tuymans underscores the development process of images. He associates the cinematic process with the function of memory. For Tuymans, a stopped image (a frame) in a film induces stillness, while in the case of painting that movement is created from standstill in a single image. The whole process of Simulation is thus akin to a stroll between different media.