Research & Development - Luc Tuymans review...

The benifits of good research became apparent again today when a chance encounter caused me to look at some of the works of Luc Tuymans....

Whilst his portraits and figurative paintings have a haunting veil about them, they also explore the every day object too.  Here, one of Tuymans earlier works, 'Pink Sunglasses' 2002, caught my eye... (No pun intended)...

Pink Glasses, by Luc Tuymans
(2001) painting - oil on canvas
Dimensions
37 3/8 in. x 23 1/4 in. (95 cm x 59 cm)

Collection SFMOMA
Purchase through a gift of The Buddy Taub Foundation, Jill and Dennis Roach, Directors
© Luc Tuymans Permanent URL
http://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2002.48
PLEASE DO NOT COPY!.  Image recorded for personal research use only.

And this painting, created in 2001 has a particular resonance with the idea of the everyday, something fading away....  The painting is particularly enigmatic, - why has the identity of the passenger been erased? Is there a memory of someone who has died during an air flight? -

I notice that the passenger is seated in what appears to be the fuselage of an aircraft, the memory of the 9/11 tragedy is likely to be the stimulus for this work perhaps?

Luc Tuymans (Belgian, born 1958)
"Passenger" (2001) , oil on canvas  Size:90.2 x 60 cm. (35.5 x 23.6 in.)
Courtesy of Artnet.com
PLEASE DO NOT COPY!.  Image recorded for personal research use only.

My hunch was right.  - However, it seems that Tuymans turned his back somewhat on the tragic events and instead showed a still life example at the exhibition at Documenta, 2002, where it was expected that he was to present art in response to the 9/11 horror.  Instead, he chose a subject to instil "Sublimation" as he put it. (Ref. Tate Modern, see below).

Luc Tuymans
Still-Life 2002
Owned by James and Jacqui Erskine, Sydney, Australia
© The artist, courtesy Zeno X Gallery and David Zwirner, New York. Photo credit: Felix Tirry.
Courtesy of Tate Modern,
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/luc-tuymans/luc-tuymans-room-7
PLEASE DO NOT COPY!.  Image recorded for personal research use only.

Conclusions;
His reason for this was to make reference to "the banal" in order (in my opinion) to draw attention to the everyday, the quotidian.   By doing this, he's saying to the viewer,  that 9/11 could happen any day, at any time... we normalise ourselves through images of horror to such an extent that it becomes diluted.

In psychological terms, 'Sublimation' is the given title to how we (in maturity) use a 'defence strategy' or mechanism, to detach ourselves (from a highly charged, stimulative or horrific) event which would in an immature state cause us to follow our automatic instincts, and replace them with a controlled response.  In simple terms, it's the mature ability to 'respond' to an event, rather than 'react'.  The two are quite different.  A response requires reasoned and considered judgement, which in itself, requires an element of detachment from the trigger event; while a reaction is much more immediate, catalytic  or spontaneous and knee-jerked, such as a physical reaction perhaps, as triggered by an adrenalin rush, rather than a delayed adjustment.