"The Shore": Luc Tuymans at David Zwirner

The Shore is an upcoming exhibition by Luc Tuymans at the David Zwirner gallery, primarily made up of paintings reflecting pre-existing imagery ranging from the everyday to the historical, and characterised by Tuymans’ sparse use of colour.

Paintings to be displayed include Wallpaper and Cloud – both are based on the wallpaper of a luxury hotel in Edinburgh that Tuymans visited as a teen, who’s serene, if stifling aestheticism seems to suggest how the perils of isolationism and class indifference may stall the radical ideas of forward looking members of society. 

Tuymans’ paintings echo Douglas Horton’s idea that “the art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity.”; In their quietness and restraint, the pieces may appear disarmingly straightforward at first glance, but a closer inspection will always reveal a complex range of themes and topics residing just beneath the surface, close enough to identify but still tantalisingly out of reach, thus ensuring that the viewer is haunted by what they have seen.  

The Shore is Tuymans’ 12th solo show with David Zwirner, but only his second at the gallery’s London location – it shall mark his return to the gallery after he inaugurated it with his show Allo! in 2012. 

The exhibition will be opening in the wake of Tuymans’ recent court case, which has found him guilty of plagiarism. Tuymans tendency to rework existing photographic source material has landed him a €500,000 fine for painting a photograph of politician Jean-Marie Dedecker taken by Katrijn Van Giel. 

Perfectly illustrating how Tuymans changes the meaning of an image in the process of reworking it as a painting, The Shore is an exhibition worth seeing for its technical artistry as well as the questions it raises on the way artists interpret and engage with everyday life.

The Shore at David Zwirner from 30 January – 2 April 2015 

Private view:  Thursday 29 January, 6 – 8pm

David Zwirner