Byron Kim

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Byron Kim (born in 1961 in La Jolla, California) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. In the early 1990s he produced minimalist paintings exploring racial identity.

[edit] Works

Kim's work in the early 1990s consisted of monochrome canvases depicting the skin tones of friends and family.[1] He gained early recognition for Synecdoche, his contribution to the 1993 Whitney Biennial, which embodied the aesthetic and political aspirations of the art in that year's exhibition.[2] Synecdoche (1991-1992) is a grid of 400 small, monochromatic paintings. Each panel recreates the skin color of an individual who sat for Kim while he painted their portrait.[2] Although the works, at first glance, resemble minimalist paintings of the 1960s the racial and political dimensions became apparent after reading in the exhibition catalogue how the works came about.[3] For Arthur C. Danto the work becomes less interesting once the viewer is aware of the artist's intentions.[4]

These monochrome canvases were followed by two or three-zoned canvases that color-sampled objects, sites or people.[1] Kim collaborated with artist Glenn Ligon on Black & White (1993), part of a series critiquing the 'prejudices' of art materials, specifically the hues of 'Flesh'-colored tubes of paint.[5] 46 Halsey Drive Wallingford CT (1995) records his family members' various recollections of the color of a home Kim lived in as a child. Other works employ a more naturalistic approach to represent details such as the palms of the artist's hands, or the whorls in his children's hair.

Kim also paints landscapes[1] and makes photographic assemblages.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Carey Lovelace, Byron Kim at Max Protetch - Brief Article, Art in America, October 2001.
  2. ^ a b Micheal Kelly in Salim Kemal, Ivan Gaskell, Politics and Aesthetics in the Arts, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p249. ISBN 0521454182
  3. ^ Micheal Kelly in Salim Kemal, Ivan Gaskell, Politics and Aesthetics in the Arts, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp249-250. ISBN 0521454182
  4. ^ Arthur Coleman Danto in Arthur Coleman Danto, Gregg Horowitz, Tom Huhn, The Wake of Art: Criticism, Philosophy, and the Ends of Taste, Routledge, 1998, p173. ISBN 9057013010
  5. ^ Erika Doss, Twentieth-Century American Art, Oxford University Press, 2002, p237. ISBN 0192842390
  6. ^ Grace Glueck, Art in Review, The New York Times, Dec 9, 2005.