Petrus & Paulus

"The painting 'Petrus & Paulus' is part of a group of works that refer to the Oberammergau Passion Play, a re-enactment of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. The play has been staged every ten years since 1634 by the inhabitants of the Bavarian village, to keep a vow for having been spared the bubonic plague. Tuymans recalls having watched the play with his parents in the 1970s. The reputation of Oberammergau was badly tarnished when Hitler attended the play and it became associated with Nazi propaganda and anti-Semitism.
More than illustrating the importance of the two apostles in the life of Christ, the painting refers to their scenic attributes in the ritual story of Oberammergau, bringing theatre into painting through an idea of representation. As with most of Tuymans’ painting, Petrus & Paulus is based on pre-existing visual documentation, in this case stage images taken from the play. The apostles look at something that is happening outside the frame, something which remains beyond the viewers reach. That action, in which Peter and Paul participate only as observers, turns them into secondary characters, which contradicts the apparent protagonism conferred by their scale in the pictorial composition. The artist said that he tried to paint the two figures in the style of the old masters, thus recalling the concept of ‘authentic forgery’ and alluding implicitly to Han van Meegeren, the master forger of Vermeer’s paintings.
Luc Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters of his generation. His sparsely coloured and figurative works are usually painted from pre-existing imagery which includes photographs, films stills, and objects. The artist also often draws from contemporary history, as well as from the painterly traditions of Flemish painting."