Luc Tuymans – Silent Music

Magnificent new monograph exploring the tension between silence, memory, violence and power in Luc Tuymans’s enigmatic paintings.Luc Tuymans is one of the most important painters of his generation and a defining figure in contemporary art. Spanning over four decades, his oeuvre is marked by a historically conscious approach and an enduring engagement with images, memory, and representation. Recurring subjects such as the violence of war, visual memories of colonialism, and the uncanny are veiled by his characteristic palette, restrained painting style, and method of working from ‘images of images’. Silent Music takes the source material underlying Tuymans’ paintings as its starting point. An in-depth essay by art critic Wim Peeters explores this material and its role throughout Tuymans’ oeuvre. Beautifully designed and richly illustrated, this monograph shows how Tuymans’ work remains closely connected to its time—and may be more urgent than ever.Publication accompanying the exhibition of the same name at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, from 19 February to 11 July 2027.