Luc Tuymans – Silent Music

This magnificent new monograph explores the tensions among silence, memory, violence, and power in Luc Tuymans’s enigmatic paintings.

Luc Tuymans is among the most important painters of his generation and a defining figure in contemporary art. Across a career spanning more than four decades, his historically conscious work has consistently explored images, memory, and representation. Recurring themes—including the violence of war, visual memories of colonialism, and the uncanny—are filtered through his characteristic palette, restrained style, and practice of working from “images of images.”

Silent Music begins with the source material behind Tuymans’ paintings. In an in-depth essay, art critic Wim Peeters examines this material and its significance across Tuymans’ oeuvre.

Beautifully designed and richly illustrated, this monograph reveals how deeply Tuymans’ work is rooted in its time—and why it 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.