The Belgian artist Luc Tuymans (b. 1958) has long been invested in the relationship between moving and static images. Drawing has been central to Tuymans's practice from the start, and he has periodically made short animated clips from his paintings and drawings over the course of his decades-long career. As is common in the artist's practice, the images presented here are rendered equally from history as they are from film stills, magazines, and iPhone photos. Created during the pandemic, these works are further mediated through the lens of the internet and restricted access to the outdoors.
The emblematic, muted qualities of Tuymans's well-known paintings—a cool detachment, verging on unease—carry into his animations. He presents seemingly innocuous subject matter that, on closer inspection, might reveal a condensed representation rooted in political critique. Tuymans playfully casts his disenchantment in a series of translucent, fuzzy, delineated objects and figures, directing attention back to the medium itself.