Lot 1263: HONG KYOUNG TACK

HONG KYOUNG TACK
(B. 1968)
Library
signed in Korean; signed and inscribed 'Hong Kyoung tack oil on canvas 72.7 x 60.6 cm.' in English; dated '2002' (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
72.5 x 60 cm. (28 1/2 x 23 5/8 in.)
Painted in 2002

Property from a Distinguished European Collection
Christie's Hong Kong, 26 November 2006, Lot 400
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Unabashedly indulged in glitzy overtones, Hong Kyoung Tack creates active movement, colour and drama to convey layers of clever symbolism on the juxtaposition of polarities between Pop Art and religion, high art and low art, sacred and the secular, desire and transcendence. Books might conventionally be viewed as symbols of knowledge and tradition, but here they become bearers of a dizzying but meaningless array of colour and stimulation, contributing not to enlightenment but to a claustrophobic environment.

The raw primary colour palette interacts with simple forms of rectangles, creating explosive grid-like patterns in the two Library series. The colours appear glistening and playful at first but end with a kitsch impression; both paintings are metaphors for the impermanence of life as Hong deliberately fuses living motifs (people and plants) with artificial motifs (books). The slanted arrangement of books in the shelves of Library (Lot 1263) creates rhythmic pulse across the canvas, composing its spatial arrangement in subtle anticipation by simply allowing a gap between book shelves to reveal a row of neatly stacked cactuses. Such theatricality is also staged in Libray 8 (Captive Woman) (Lot 1262) but with more of a surrealistic nuance where the woman is fragmented in movement, highly specific yet vague to reveal Hong's blending of his unconscious with the conscious. The pictorial space is highly ordered and symmetrical in simple dominance but has ample effects of capturing the drama and beauty of the fleeting moment, successfully reproducing the visions of his mind.
Hong's works display his complex and eccentric persona and his long-standing contemplation of the relationship between religion and popular culture. As a child, the artist was struck by the seemingly arbitrary placement of a holy church on a city street surrounded by bars, restaurants and commercial shops. He felt this juxtaposition epitomized the underlying tension of maintaining religious faith in the face of the commodity fetish of popular consumer culture. As a result, he has pursued an art practice that seduces the viewer with a colourful and technical virtuosity that belies the seriousness of his concerns.