David Zwirner inaugurates new London venue with Luc Tuymans


Luc Tuymans, Allo!, 2012. Oil on canvas. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner Gallery

David Zwirner opens his new gallery in London today inaugurating with Luc Tuymans exhibition Allo!.

The exhibition comprises a series of paintings entitled Allo! initially inspired by Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899), but in the end drawing more visual references from the final scene in the 1942 film The Moon and Sixpence, itself an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s eponymous novel from 1919. Tuymans’s convoluted interest on the topic enacts a general negation of modernism and Hollywood’s longstanding idealization of the artist as a romantic savage. This will be Tuymans’ ninth solo show since joining David Zwirner in 1994.

The gallery’s first European venue is set in a 18th-century Georgian townhouse on 24 Grafton Street in the heart of Mayfair, the city’s historic fine arts neighborhood. The building will open to almost 10,000 square feet spanning five floors, with the main exhibition spaces over three levels renovated by architect Annabelle Selldorf of Selldorf Architects, aligning the quintessential London townhouse along the aesthetics of the gallery’s existing spaces in New York.


Luc Tuymans, Allo! Installation view at David Zwirner London. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner Gallery

Luc Tuymans
Allo!

at David Zwirner, London
5 October – 17 November 2012
Opening reception: Friday, 5 October 6.00 – 8.00 PM

David Zwirner
24 Grafton Street
London W1S 4EZ
davidzwirner.com


Daavid Zwirner’s new London premises set in a 18th-century Georgian townhouse in the heart of Mayfair. Courtesy David Zwirner Gallery

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