Lot 1084: KIM DONG YOO

KIM DONG YOO
(b. 1965)
Grace Kelly VS Clark Gable
signed 'KDY' in English; dated '2008' (lower left side of canvas)
oil on canvas
227 x 181.9 cm. (89 1/4 x 71 5/8 in.)
Painted in 2008

Deeply engaged in materialistic culture, Kim formed a formula of constructing a diagrammatic format with multiple microscopic portrait of Clark Gable, harmonized with coy control of tonal gradient to emit a larger final portrait of Grace Kelly Executed in monotonic patches of pulsating red-scale; it exercises the spectator's eye to synchronize between concentration and convergence. As both Grace Kelly VS Clark Gable (Lot 1084) are strangled within this pressured grid, it generates an impression of media frenzy, where construction of their identity has been controlled and manipulated, furthermore consumed by society. Kim's portraitures arise as an acute critique, aimed at defining the result of globalization and reproduction; moreover as a deep contemplation and examination of the theory of icon, dissecting its emblem, or even dissecting its semiotic concept. Addressing analogy to be of great importance in comprehending the very notion of icon, 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.
Kim's suave riddle of contradiction between the physical fact and the psychological effect is what makes his painting variably unique to everyone's perceptual experience, also drawing critical attention to the construction of images. He demonstrates that illusion of sight has its interesting values by rejecting to confine vision as something singularly related to the mechanism of the eye, uttering that there are narratives that we cannot discern physiologically and psychologically.