A Fascinating Malaise. The Painting of Luc Tuymans

Among collectors, it is the Americans and Germans especially who show a keen interest in paintings by Luc Tuymans, an artist from Antwerp who, as Adrian Searle once wrote, ‘examines the malaise of European culture'. But to Tuymans himself the narrative aspect is less important than the essential process which takes place during the actual painting: the image takes on a life of its own so that the memory contained in the painting is completely different to that in the artist's head.