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Lot Essay
Kim Dong-Yoo's signature paintings which present dual images within the same picture plane allow the viewer to assume multiple focal points. In other words, the picture plane that Kim creates does not have a single point on which the audience can concentrate and any attempt to capture the entirety of the painting transparently is destined to fail.
In Grace Kelly VS Clark Gable (Lot 171) and Marilyn VS Mao (Lot 172), Kim formed a formula of constructing a diagrammatic format with multiple microscopic portraits of Clark Gable and Mao harmonized with coy control of tonal gradient to emit larger final portraits of Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe. Using monochromic grids of pulsating red-scale, it exercises the spectator's eye to synchronize between divergence and convergence all at once. As the dual images are strangled within this compressed grid, it generates an impression of media frenzy, in which the construction of their identity is controlled and manipulated, and ultimately consumed by society.
Kim constructs a pictorial idiom of the life of the artist in Van Gogh VS Van Gogh (Lot 173). Here the portrait of Van Gogh is proliferated across the canvas into an outcome of a larger portrait of Gogh himself. Camouflaged under the celebrated spotlight of Gogh, diverse Gogh appears timid and small. The artist skillfully integrates the concept of camouflage physiology of the behavior of animal in defense to its predator.
Kim's portraitures arise as an acute critique, aimed at defining the result of globalization and reproduction; moreover, it serves as the artist's deep contemplation and examination of the theory of icon, dissecting its emblem, or even dissecting its semiotic concept.
Addressing the analogy of being of great importance and our comprehension of the very notion of an icon, the image is thus where icons become a pictorial analogy. Kim knowingly consents to this belief in his painterly creation of multi-layered icons that are in heavy relevance to each other, crafting a visual idiom for the audience to decipher. There is no Audrey Hepburn in Audrey Hepburn as there is no Diana in Diana. An image lies low hidden from immediate view and then suddenly emerges to reveal itself. As soon as one finds that the subject is not there, another subject makes its unanticipated appearance. In this way, as a noted Korean art critic has stated, "Kim's activity of painting the subjects becomes erasing them," (Kim Dong Yoo's Works from 1985 to 2008, Seoul, Korea, 2009, p. 28) Kim is painting by erasing and erasing while painting.
In Grace Kelly VS Clark Gable (Lot 171) and Marilyn VS Mao (Lot 172), Kim formed a formula of constructing a diagrammatic format with multiple microscopic portraits of Clark Gable and Mao harmonized with coy control of tonal gradient to emit larger final portraits of Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe. Using monochromic grids of pulsating red-scale, it exercises the spectator's eye to synchronize between divergence and convergence all at once. As the dual images are strangled within this compressed grid, it generates an impression of media frenzy, in which the construction of their identity is controlled and manipulated, and ultimately consumed by society.
Kim constructs a pictorial idiom of the life of the artist in Van Gogh VS Van Gogh (Lot 173). Here the portrait of Van Gogh is proliferated across the canvas into an outcome of a larger portrait of Gogh himself. Camouflaged under the celebrated spotlight of Gogh, diverse Gogh appears timid and small. The artist skillfully integrates the concept of camouflage physiology of the behavior of animal in defense to its predator.
Kim's portraitures arise as an acute critique, aimed at defining the result of globalization and reproduction; moreover, it serves as the artist's deep contemplation and examination of the theory of icon, dissecting its emblem, or even dissecting its semiotic concept.
Addressing the analogy of being of great importance and our comprehension of the very notion of an icon, the image is thus where icons become a pictorial analogy. Kim knowingly consents to this belief in his painterly creation of multi-layered icons that are in heavy relevance to each other, crafting a visual idiom for the audience to decipher. There is no Audrey Hepburn in Audrey Hepburn as there is no Diana in Diana. An image lies low hidden from immediate view and then suddenly emerges to reveal itself. As soon as one finds that the subject is not there, another subject makes its unanticipated appearance. In this way, as a noted Korean art critic has stated, "Kim's activity of painting the subjects becomes erasing them," (Kim Dong Yoo's Works from 1985 to 2008, Seoul, Korea, 2009, p. 28) Kim is painting by erasing and erasing while painting.