Art Brokerage: Luc Tuymans (born 1958) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters working today. His signature figurative paintings transform mediated film, television, and print sources into examinations of history and memory. Tuymans was born in Mortsel, Belgium. He began his studies in the fine arts at the Sint-Lukasinstituut in Brussels in 1976. Subsequently he studied fine arts at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre in Brussels, Belgium (1979??"1980) and at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, Belgium (1980??"1982). He also studied art history at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels, Belgium (1982??"1986). He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Antwerp in Antwerp, Belgium and was honored by the Belgian government when they bestowed upon him the title of Commander, Order of Leopold in 2007. The artist has been the focus of several retrospectives at various international institutions, including the M?csarnok Kunsthalle in Budapest, Hungary; Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Illinois, and the Zach?ta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Poland. The artist’s first comprehensive U.S. retrospective opened in September 2009 at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio and traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Tuymans has been the subject of one-person exhibitions at Kabinett für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremerhaven, Germany; MuHKA Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium (both 2007); Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal; Musee d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMCO), Geneva, Switzerland (both 2006); and the Tate Modern, London, England (2004). His numerous, recent group exhibitions include Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Mapping the Studio: Artists from the François Pinault Collection, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy (2009); Collecting Collections: Highlights from the Permanent Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California; Doing it My Way: Perspectives in Belgian Art, Museum Küppersmuhle für Moderne Kunst, Duisberg, Germany (2008); What is Painting? Contemporary Art From the Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; Fast Forward: Collections for the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas; The Painting of Modern Life, The Hayward Gallery, London, England and Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy (2007); Essential Painting, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan; Infinite Painting: Contemporary Painting and Global Realism, Villa Manin Centro d’Arte Contemporanea, Codroipo, Italy (2006). Tuymans aroused interest in 2000 with his series of political paintings titled Mwana Kitoko (beautiful boy), which take themes out of the state visit of King Baudouin of Belgium in the Congo in the 1950's. The most noted painting was of the king himself in his white military uniform. .