Lumumba by Luc Tuymans

This painting is based on a photo of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Belgian Congo.  In producing this oil painting, Tuymans was showing his diversity in painting about world issues and foreign countries.  This painting is supposed to represent the struggle of the country that started in Belgium and continued into Congo.  Although the painting was done in 2000, Lumumba was assassinated 39 years earlier.  It is suggested that the portrait tells us nothing about Lumumba himself but the fact that there was a dark struggle throughout this conflict.  Tuymans has said, “the subject of this work is history, then the object is a vessel of historical memory”.  One of the more interesting things about this painting is the fact that Tuymans did this painting from memory of a photograph rather than the photograph itself.  Tuymans added subtle differences to the paintings such as light and color changes to ad effects for Lumumba’s qualities.  The lighter tones suggest that Lumumba was a more civilized man.  I admire this painting for the fact that being able to capture a person’s features and who they were and putting it on paper is certainly an amazing talent.