Luc Tuymans presents a new commission for the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. The largest canvases produced by the artist to date, the two new paintings will occupy walls which usually feature Tintoretto’s Last Supper (1592–1594) and The Israelites in the Desert (c. 1593), while they undergo restoration. Unlike Tintoretto’s masterworks, Tuymans’s paintings do not deal with biblical subject matter directly, but rather underscore a disjuncture between appearance and reality. The artist will also present a contemporary illuminated manuscript. 

The presentation is commissioned by the Benedictine Community, led by Abbot Stefano Visintin osb, and Draiflessen Collection, and marks a return to Venice for Tuymans after his critically acclaimed retrospective, La Pelle, at Palazzo Grassi in 2019.