Luc Tuymans
Venezia Venezia VE
May 9 – November 23, 2025
Two New Paintings for the Presbytery of the Basilica
The Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore unveils a powerful new commission by Luc Tuymans, a leading voice in contemporary painting. In a rare gesture of temporal substitution, two original works by Tuymans take the place of Jacopo Tintoretto’s monumental canvases—currently removed for restoration—within the sacred heart of the Palladian basilica.
Developed specifically for the presbytery, Tuymans’ paintings engage with the layered history and spiritual aura of the space. Drawing from fragments of ordinary life, refracted through the lens of memory and disquiet, the works navigate the tension between the seen and the sensed—where the mundane brushes against the divine.
This intervention forms part of an ongoing dialogue between contemporary art and sacred architecture, initiated by the Benedictine Community in collaboration with the Draiflessen Collection. Curated by Carmelo A. Grasso, Corinna Otto, and Ory Dessau, the project opens a contemplative space where past and present, silence and image, tradition and disruption converge.