The Shore
Luc Tuymans
Oil on canvas (2014)

Luc Yuymans’ work first grasped my attention with its impressive, impactful scale, the painting being 1942 x 3573 mm. It would not have been a piece I’d have been exposed to if I hadn’t visited the gallery in person, so in that sense, the trip was invaluable. The Shore is held at Tate Modern, and was presented by the artist in 2015.

Within the painting, it seems the visual capacity is impaired for the onlooker, who perhaps are sailors in a boat. However, having read the paintings notes beside it, it’s revealed that the indistinctness masks what cruelties occurring in the scene. The painting was influenced by a scene in the film ‘A Twist Of Sand’ by Don Chaffey, (based on the novel by Geoffrey Jenkins) whereby civilians pleading to be saved from a beach were shot down a few moments after their calls. With the figures being the source of luminosity in the piece, visually the piece resonates with the idea of ‘seeing the light’ before death. Hung on a white wall in the gallery, it draws more emphasis to the contrast of the black and white tones.

                                                                          Atropos 1823

Witches Sabbath 1798

Francisco de Goya’s ‘Black Paintings’ can be seen to contain many similarities with The Shore. Landscapes of clustered figures, with muted tones are some of the visual similarities between the two artists’ work. A somber, yet chaotic setting is portrayed, aesthetically easy on the eye due to the symmetry of the works. However, the three paintings displayed here make the audience uneasy due to their ruinous content. Having been taken from a scene from a film, ‘The Shore’s’ blurry painting technique softens the happenings of the piece. The easy-blend nature of gradual black and white tones assist this alleviation.

The Shore 2014

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jan/28/luc-tuymans-the-shore-cannibal-killers-exhibitions

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Francisco-Goya-produce-the-Black-Paintings