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Living Large Like Lincoln: an interview with Korean artist Hyung Koo Kang
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© Hyung Koo Kang, Lincoln, 2008, Oil on canvas,
23 1/4 x 76 3/8 inches
Hyung Koo Kang is both a figure and an artist who is larger than life.
He is the epitome of the artist who seeks the universal truths of humanity within the earnest and detailed introspection of oneself.
Born in 1954 in Pusan South Korea, Hyung fell in love with art at a very early age. While most other school children spent their time playing, he spent his time sketching. He was particularly enamored by animation at an early age.
In high school, he watched American Westerns and was particularly swayed by the narrative myths presented by each big screen adventure.
Perhaps, this is why he has long chosen to create paintings that are larger than life, faces of famous figures that often are bigger than 8 x 6 feet—portraits of international, Korean and American icons such as Stalin, Ho Chi Minh, and Deng Xiao Ping; South Korean Presidents Chunghee Park, Youngsam Kim, and Daejoong Kim; American Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama; Artists Michelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci, Vincent Van Gogh and Andy Warhol; as well as Actresses Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. Each portrait endowed with the rich stories of these individual’s lives, which are interwoven into the larger picture—the history of a country, its culture and its people.
Hyung readily acknowledges that through his paintings he is recognizing and memorializing some of the more important public figures. In essence, just like any other scholar, he says, “I’m writing American history. I portray people I am drawn to, people I’ve wanted to become out of respect, people I want to express, and people I admire. I want their great influences to carry on over and continue to live through art.”
Hyung recently explained during an interview at the Arario Gallery in New York that he has long been interested in American history, especially those historical figures that succeeded in achieving the American dream, despite their humble beginnings. He cites the story of Abraham Lincoln as a perfect example.
In 2004, Hyung achieved his own milestone of success when one of his paintings of the dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh sold for $350,000. He was particularly pleased, not because of the high price it sold for, but because it was redemption for fifteen years of hard work with little recognition. He explains, “Finally, my talent was recognized, which made me only want to work harder.”
This particular moment in his career as an artist also changed how other’s perceived his work. “Once this painting sold, people no longer doubted the merit of my work. I have been creating these large-scale paintings for 15 years, since 1989, and it wasn’t until Van Gogh sold that collectors began to seriously consider my work.”
Prior to 1989, Hyung had lived the normal hum-drum life of the salary man for 10 years. “Although I secretly attended art school in 1973, against my father’s wishes, I met my future wife at the university and we got married immediately after graduating. We then started a family and I got a good steady job to support us—thus, essentially giving up my dreams of becoming an artist.”
For almost ten years he worked for an agricultural import company, meanwhile obediently meeting paternal expectations, yet all the while yearning to return to his true calling. Recalling the experience he says, “Working for the company was suffocating. Although I was meeting my obligations, the job didn’t motivate me creatively, which was torture because art school had set me on fire. Seeing the shows of colleagues that had gone on to successfully start their careers as artists often made me jealous. But just as often, I was inspired. So that, often, I painted whenever and wherever I could, despite the lack of space and resources.”
Finally, when he could no longer take it anymore, he decided to take a risk and venture back into the art world by quitting his steady job, and using the severance to open up his own gallery. Although he wasn’t selling his own art, it was an opportunity to leave his desk job and gradually reintroduce himself to the place where he truly belonged.
He pursued his new career as a dealer for four years until it folded. However, it was not a fruitless venture, because he had made a lot of useful connections in the process, so that when he had to close down his shop, he was also able to focus on creating, and eventually selling, his own art.
“I toiled for practically ten years in the basement studio of my home, and completed almost one hundred pieces before I felt I was truly ready to present my work. Towards the end of my self-imposed isolation I reemerged and mustered enough courage to submit my work to a group show focusing on hyper-realism.”
Although subsequently he did not sell any work at his first big solo show in 2002, it brought him instant recognition as an artist. He had created 50 larger-than-life self portraits of himself at various stages of his life thus far, and as a result people not only immediately recognized that he had talent, but they also immediately began recognizing him on the streets of Seoul. He regales, “Although I did not sell anything, merely for people to call me an ‘artist’ was worth all my efforts and having to wait 20 years. Moreover, these pictures essentially made me ‘famous.’”
He also happily recalls that this series of work was important because introspection and reflection, and the expression of one’s self-perception are all quintessential to the evolution of an artist. “As artists we must use our creative gifts to express what others cannot.”
Eventually, he did begin to sell his work, just as his children were growing up enough, so that he had more time to himself to focus on his work.
Nowadays he makes 10-15 paintings a year. He chooses his subjects based on one of two criteria, either they are recognizable icons or they simply have interesting facial features.
To produce his unique portraits—Vincent Van Gogh smoking with a bandage about his head, a still sensual-as-ever Marilyn Monroe at the age of 60, sans botox, collagen or lifts—he does not use photographs, but rather primarily depends upon his own intrinsic understanding of life and human development. To create the aging effect for some of his pieces he visually integrates various images of the features of elderly people.
He also creates his work on a large scale to emphasize the human expression. He explains, “By magnifying the facial features the portrait reveals traces of hidden emotion that might not be otherwise seen on a normal scale. In essence, the viewer is presented with an extraordinary view of the human face that strives to instill greater empathy.”
Furthermore, he employs a unique arsenal of tools to create his work: an airbrush, nails, drill, cotton swabs, toothpicks and erasers.
Ultimately, his goal is to create an alternative reality in many cases, striving to present a reality based on potential and possibilities.
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Hyung Koo Kang’s work is currently on display at Arario Gallery New York until June 20. The gallery is located at 521 W 25th in New York City.
For More Information:
Artists & Photographers | Curators & Dealers Howard Greenberg |
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