Sheer Curtains
Luc Tuymans
Belgian, born 1958
1991
An oil on canvas that renders sheer curtains with a barely suggested hand and a thin, twisting vine, aiming to evoke memory and absence rather than clear depiction.
At first glance the surface seems nearly blank—milky washes and vertical bands of curtain reveal only a ghostly hand and a spidery dark line that quietly draw the eye across the pale field.
By reducing imagery to hushed tones and near-abstraction, Tuymans helped redefine late-20th-century figurative painting, using understatement to probe memory, historical trauma, and the fragility of representation.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
34 5/8 x 31 1/8" (88 x 79 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of G. David Thompson and John Whyte (both by exchange)
Accession
551.2014
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
