October 2, 2010 -- January 9, 2011 Born in Mortsel, Belgium, in 1958, Luc Tuymans is one of today's most widely admired painters, a continuation of the great tradition of Northern European painting and an enduring influence on younger and emerging artists. As a European child of the 1950s, his relationship to painting is inevitably structured by television, cinema and by the lingering effects of World War II; more recent historical preoccupations have included the dramatic turn of world events post-9/11. Tuymans combines a muted palette with deteriorated surface effect and a singular use of cropping, close-up and sequencing--perfect devices with which to undertake his investigation of the pathological, the banal and the conspiratorial. In this behind-the-scenes look at the series "Mwana Kitoko: Beautiful White Man," about the Belgian colonization of the Congo, Tuymans reveals the stories behind "Chalk," a painting about the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo. For more information, visit www.mcachicago.org