Me is a portrait of the artist Luc Tuymans that he made of himself--like a selfie! [SOUNDFX: camera shutter sound]
He’s an artist who usually paints from photographs and images taken from film and TV.
In fact, it was Luc’s wife who took the photograph this painting is based on. She took it on a cell phone’s camera. Luc is a figurative painter, which means his work is focused on real objects and people in real life.
Have you ever made a self-portrait? Did you paint yourself doing something you love doing? Dancing? Singing? Being happy? Being sad?
This self-portrait is quite different than that. Nothing is really celebrated or explored deeply, it just is. It’s quite matter of fact. Normal and everyday.
The colors he used are quite thin, grey, and muted.
Beautiful, yet slightly dreary except for the spot of sunshine on his shoulder. That sunny spot is brighter than anything in the painting behind you mysteriously called Morning Sun.
[SOUNDFX: cracking glass]
There’s no trace of the sun in this painting? Instead we see a cracked window, and it’s frame, which is painted just off-center of the canvas. Like his self-portrait, this is a very everyday scene too. It’s actually the window across the street from his studio