Sanguine / Bloedrood

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    During the cultural city festival Antwerp Baroque 2018. Rubens Inspires, the M HKA, the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, juxtaposes the spirit of the baroque masters with the vision of contemporary top artists. With the exhibition Sanguine/Bloedrood (Blood Red), curator Luc Tuymans aims to overwhelm the visitor by placing key works from the baroque of, among others, Francisco de Zurbarán and Caravaggio, in dialogue with works by classical contemporary masters, such as On Kawara and Edward Kienholz, as well as new works by contemporary stars such as Zhang Enli, Takashi Murakami, Michaël Borremans, Sigmar Polke and Tobias Rheberger. 

    antwerpenbarok2018.be

    Luc Tuymans

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    (c)image: M HKA
    Ballroom Dancing, 2007
    Luc Tuymans
    Print , 1050 x 750 mm
    ink on paper

    In Ballroom Dancing, Luc Tuymans indicts American policy post 9/11.  The picture is of a spruced up young couple dancing, everything apparently clean and proper.  But this is mere façade, and Tuymans wants to pierce it.

    “I always took violence as a basic underlying structure in my work. The element of being afraid is a specific fascination.”

    “I don’t think art is derived from art, I think art is derived from reality.”

    The reality of Luc Tuymans' work is always a double one.   At first sight we have a graceful, aesthetic and classic image but at the same time there are subtle references to post 9/11 or the era of Bush and the neocons.

    In Ballroom Dancing, portrayed as well is the regression of American society of that period, the return to an overt form of conservatism.  The classic, blissful, romantic and innocent ballroom dance à la Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers, takes place above a marble floor with the seal of the state of Texas, where George Bush had been governor, where whites strut rednecked and Christian fundamentalism flourishes.

     

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