Screenprint in 7 colours on BFK Rives 300 g/ m² paper

 

Luc Tuymans often works in thematic series. The silk-screen print The Valley is one of a series about the Jesuits that he made in 2007. The works stem from his fascination with the spiritual power of this religious order organised along military lines that had its heyday during the Counter-Reformation. The Valley is a portrait of a boy that indirectly illustrates the power relations and restrictive moral codes of the early 1950s. The intimate portrait is based on a still from the film The Village of the Damned, metamorphosed by Tuymans as The Valley (of the Doomed). The work is charged with the characteristic Tuymans tension: the boy is prematurely aged and tormented. He averts his eyes: his gaze, haircut and clothes all bear witness to training and discipline. The work is composed in a dingy monochrome of yellowish-green tones.