“Sanguine is a personal interpretation of the Baroque based on innovative juxtapositions and unexpected associations of works by contemporary artists and Old Masters. Avoiding a rigid chronological order or a strictly historiographical approach, Tuymans evades the traditional notion of the Baroque and invites viewers to reconsider 17th  century art, as well as the contemporary research, by placing artists and their role in society at the center of the exhibition narrative.

In the wake of Walter Benjamin’s analysis, according to whom the Baroque marked the start of modernity, Tuymans explores the search for authenticity, the political significance of artistic representation, the emotional turmoil generated by art, the celebration of the author’s personality, and the international dimension of the art scene, recognizing the Baroque as a primary point of reference for today’s art. Not only does Sanguine push the traditional boundaries of the Baroque notion by extending its duration to the present day, but also it shows how over the past two centuries artists have helped redefine it, from the negative sense attributed to the word by art critics during the late 18th  century, to the reassessment operated by Postmodernism and the re-establishment of a Baroque and figurative expressiveness in the art of recent years.

The exhibition title—a word that signifies the color of blood, but also a violent and vigorous temperament, and a pictorial technique—suggests a multiplicity of perspectives to interpret the exhibited works, in which violence and its simulation, cruelty and dramatization, realism and exaggeration, disgust and wonder, terror and ecstasy coexist.” — Fondazione Prada

All images are exhibition views of “Sanguine: Luc Tuymans on Baroque”. A project by Luc Tuymans. Photos by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti. Courtesy Fondazione Prada 

Organized with MKHA (Museum of Contemporary Art of Antwerp) and KMSKA (Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp) and the City of Antwerp, the project will be featured in Milan in a new and more extensive version, following its first presentation in the Belgian city from June to September 2018.

“Sanguine – Luc Tuymans on Baroque” was curated by Luc Tuymans. He conceived an intense visual experience presenting more than 80 works by 62 international artists, including 25 exhibited exclusively at Fondazione Prada.