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Lot Essay
Kang Hyung-Koo's detailed portraits are not merely dedicated to significant figures of art history, but are also intended to be a sensorial experience based on a power yet enigmatic illusion balanced somewhere between Surrealism and Hyperrealism. Kang believes that Surrealism and Hyperrealism both deliver the same sensation by providing an illusion of reality and a sensorial misguidance through persuasive illustrations that simulate reality, and can both be the product of an improvisational automatism from the artist's psyche.
In Picasso (Lot 537) and Leonardo da Vinci (Lot 538), Kang creates an illusory promise of reality that exploits the paradoxical principle behind hyperrealism. In Leonardo da Vinci the silver gray palette creates a mysterious and appealing magnetism; and the profound gaze of the eyes forces the viewer to confront the immense energy of the late artist as he stares piercingly through our souls, intimidating and captivating us in a spell of his majestic presence.
Portrayed with unusual menace and mystery, the ethereal Picasso imbues us with a feeling of suspense as his focused hazel eyes shun our direct gaze. The turning profile of the artist is illuminated by a faint brown light that strikes only two sides of the face. The dark shadows on the canvas sings a melancholic tune that the aged, weighty eyes tell, and we find ourselves trapped in the spell of this theatricality.
Kang pursues a complete mastery over the depiction of the inner world of humans through facial portraits. Both works prove the artist's statement, demonstrating the ways in which Kang's attention to external appearances and surface beauty manages instills his subjects with an aura that exceeds mere representation or imitation. Kang's powerful portraits featured here, display how he preserve his customary tendency of emphasizing the epidermis by magnifying facial features to provoke our emotions. The meticulous record of withered skin creates a swaying sense of attraction and repulsion, and the deliberate highlighting of the deep pools of the protagonist's eyes becomes the key in seeing into their internal psyche.
In Picasso (Lot 537) and Leonardo da Vinci (Lot 538), Kang creates an illusory promise of reality that exploits the paradoxical principle behind hyperrealism. In Leonardo da Vinci the silver gray palette creates a mysterious and appealing magnetism; and the profound gaze of the eyes forces the viewer to confront the immense energy of the late artist as he stares piercingly through our souls, intimidating and captivating us in a spell of his majestic presence.
Portrayed with unusual menace and mystery, the ethereal Picasso imbues us with a feeling of suspense as his focused hazel eyes shun our direct gaze. The turning profile of the artist is illuminated by a faint brown light that strikes only two sides of the face. The dark shadows on the canvas sings a melancholic tune that the aged, weighty eyes tell, and we find ourselves trapped in the spell of this theatricality.
Kang pursues a complete mastery over the depiction of the inner world of humans through facial portraits. Both works prove the artist's statement, demonstrating the ways in which Kang's attention to external appearances and surface beauty manages instills his subjects with an aura that exceeds mere representation or imitation. Kang's powerful portraits featured here, display how he preserve his customary tendency of emphasizing the epidermis by magnifying facial features to provoke our emotions. The meticulous record of withered skin creates a swaying sense of attraction and repulsion, and the deliberate highlighting of the deep pools of the protagonist's eyes becomes the key in seeing into their internal psyche.