Luc Tuymans | The Arena

Luc Tuymans
The Arena, 2016
Triptych, silkscreen on BFK Rives Blanc (250gsm) paper
Limited edition of 30
Each 76 x 56 cm / 30 x 22 in
The first print in each set is numbered and signed by the artist

£4,200 

The Arena is a set of three monochrome prints based on three paintings entitled The Arena I, The Arena II and The Arena III, 2015. The prints were produced by Talbot Rice Gallery on the occasion of Tuymans’ 2016 exhibition, Birds of a Feather, which brought his work together with the paintings of Henry Raeburn to form a commentary on independence, enlightenment and social control.

The original paintings are based on 8mm movie images that Tuymans took in early eighties of a 1978 work also called ‘The Arena’: a collage with cut-out figures at different heights, mounted on a blurry painted background. In this early work, Tuymans was considering ideas of voyeurism, theatre and re-presentation, whilst creating the image of a crowd gathering for some unknown purpose. The image was partly inspired by the ‘black paintings’ and ‘Atropos’ of the Spanish painter Goya.

Commissioned by Talbot Rice Gallery. Printed by Dundee Contemporary Arts Print Studio under the supervision of Annis Fitzhugh. 

To purchase, contact Melissa MacRobert melissa.macrobert@ed.ac.uk / +44(0)131 651 4540

• Luc Tuymans (b.1958 in Mortsel, Belgium) is one of the most influential painters working today. Recent solo exhibitions include Palazzo Grassi, Venice IT (2019); Museum de Pont, Tilburg NL (2019); Museum aan de Stroom, Antwerp NL (2016); Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh UK (2015); Qatar Museums, Doha QA (2015); San Francisco Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, MCA Chicago and Wexner Center for the Arts (2009-2011). In 2020, Tuymans was awarded the Ultima for General Cultural Merit, which is the Flemish government’s culture prize. The artist’s works are featured in museum collections worldwide, including Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Tate, London. He lives and works in Antwerp.