Van Gogh Reborn! - Chapter 87
Henry Marceau was unable to do anything from the moment Ko Hun took out the knife and he tore off the self-portrait imitating Van Gogh exposing the sunflower.
He was stunned as the scene unfolded in front of his eyes.
The tear of the drawing paper rang was like a sharp violin.
The cutting edge of the string cut his mind.
The sunflower that appeared from behind the drawing paper was dazzling as if it had swallowed the sun.
It reminded him of the day he first met Ko Hun and his [Sunflower].
Henry Marceau shifted his attention to the title [Mask].
Ko Hun was clearly speaking through his painting.
‘Don’t think of me as a young Van Gogh anymore.’
It was as if he was shouting that his sunflower was the most brilliant one.
The clear voice touched Henry Marceau’s heart.
“Cool.”
On the other hand, for Cha Sihyeon, who had lived as a good son and a model student, Ko Hun’s deviant behavior was a big shock.
The cover picture of the [Mask] looked like a very good picture for the boy.
He couldn’t understand the meaning cutting and tearing it with a knife, but the boy’s heart was filled with unknown joy.
“Pretty.”
The golden sunflower shone in a color that Cha Sihyeon had never seen before.
His heart fluttered.
Emotions that he had never experienced before started filling his heart.
That smile of the friend standing in the midst of the pouring applause looked so cool in his eyes.
“Young master, Hun is amazing, right!?”
“That’s right. My Best friend is the best.”
Cha Sihyeon stamped his feet and boasted his words to Secretary Jeong Jinho, who didn’t know how to express the joy, and it was the same for everyone who saw the astonishing sight.
It’s torn.
It’s amazing.
It’s amazing.
I’m sure it’s a real performance.
I didn’t even think about it.
I can definitely tell what Ko Hun is thinking right now.
It means he doesn’t want his works to be looked upon as the work of the grandchild of great artists, or son of great Art studio owners, or as little Van Gogh. He wants his paintings to be looked at as Ko Hun’s works.
I guess it was kind of stressful.
I feel more positive than that negative image, the willingness to overcome it?
Hun seems to be different from the most modern artists who are hung up on the tags that stick with them.
The composition of Ko Hun, who ripped the mask that was cast on him, and Henry Marceau, who admitted to the mask and tried to reconcile, would be the highlights of this year’s Biennale.
I know. How did the two submit the same topic? Did they talk with each other before?
People watching the live broadcast were amused by the boy’s actions.
Even those who were not particularly interested in art and were just curious about what kind of work a young genius would be presenting, could also clearly understand what Ko Hun was trying to say with his painting.
Michael Ping, one of the curators who organized the Whitney Biennale, was dumbstruck by the intense image.
‘I didn’t expect this.’
He thought Ko Sooyeol and Bang Taeho were out of their minds a while ago.
The presentation ceremony was carried out only because of the works that Ko Sooyeol and Ko Hun have shown so far.
The performance itself was not new to the Art world.
Some Artists have cut the canvas, and some artists have even shredded the auctioned works.
But [Mask] was completely different from them.
It was meant to break the image given and proudly show what his Art is.
The torn outer cover also served as a work.
‘How did he come up with this idea?’
Michael Ping realized for a moment that his question was foolish.
It couldn’t have been possible if it was to find something different from others.
After tearing up his self-portrait, Ko Hun showed a work reminiscent of his first work, [Sunflower].
He appealed for his work to be seen, not his appearance.
The honest act must have been the driving force behind the completion of the noblest work.
Michael Ping shook his head and sighed.
“It was an amazing piece of work. I will take questions from the reporter who has been staring at me for a while.”
Kim Jiwoo’s face bloomed like the sunflower in [Mask] as soon as pointed out by Curator Michael Ping.
“I’m Kim Jiwoo from Yehwa, I’m Korean.”
There was pride on his face when he called himself Korean.
“I was impressed by the last exhibition that marked the beginning of the painter Ko Hun. But I think, today, you’ve announced what kind of art the painter Ko Hun will pursue. What is the goal of the painter Ko Hun?”
Ko Hun grabbed the mic and gave Henry Marceau a look.
Then, he looked at Kim Jiwoo again and answered.
“I still have so much to learn.”
The boy’s voice was calm.
“I haven’t looked around, but the Whitney Biennale is full of amazing pieces of art. I wonder, how did they come up with such an idea, and how hard it must have been to express it. Particularly [Shadow] of Henry Marceau was really impressive. It was really wonderful.”
The audience made a small commotion.
Michelle Platini had to struggle to hold back her laughter because Henry, who was staring at Ko Hun, turned his head.
“Today, I told the world what art I would do, but I don’t know what I’m going to draw. I’m inspired by so many people.”
Reporters showed interest in Ko Hun’s words.
They prepared to write down the name of the artist which he would mention as the Artist that influenced him.
“There are so many artists that influence me, including grandpa, Aunt Mirae, Henry Marceau, and the person who paints with pancakes.”
“Pancake?”
Ko Hun ignored someone’s question and took a breath.
“Maybe it’s the same with all the works on display at the Whitney Biennale. No one can definitely answer what kind of art they’ll be doing in the future.”
The boy answered after looking at each person in the audience.
“I want to draw pictures that can talk to people living in this era.”
Ko Hun’s words meant Contemporary Art, not Modern Art.
It was a word that encompasses the modern art world, where forms, hierarchies, and mainstream ideas no longer exist.
Every painter regarded himself as a contemporary artist.
Ko Hun only added a word to it that he wanted to speak with pictures.
Kim Jiwoo, who lamented that the current art world was buried under the compulsion for the Artist to create a work that is not done by others, ‘a special work’, and a work that draws attention, had lost the power to communicate and ended up creating works that even critics and docents could not understand.
Many prominent Artists applauded Ko Hun’s answer.
Ko Hun bowed and ended the presentation.
[ Words of Young genius Artist “I couldn’t be happier because the repeated failures and worries until the [Mask] was completed were not in vain.”]
[Shocking Cutting Ceremony at the Whitney Museum]
[The Mask Ripped and Completed]
[700,000 viewers at the ceremony]
[Ferrinando Gonzalez, “It’s a wonderful work. It also has a perfection that doesn’t end with a performance.”]
[Young genius who raised alarm over contemporary art]
April 23
Ko Hun unveiled his new work on the third floor of the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, where the Whitney Biennale is taking place.
Titled [Mask], this unique painting was published by overlapping a paper on canvas.
The moment a 10-year-old boy pulled off the cloth, people at the ceremony were left baffled.
This is because it revealed a self-portrait that could be called the painter Vincent van Gogh’s painting.
The delicate and intense impasto technique, the use of complementary colors, and the clear image were enough to feel Ko Hun’s respect for Vincent van Gogh.
If he were an art restorer, he would have been commissioned by numerous collectors and art galleries to restore Van Gogh’s work, but it was not a painting that a single artist could submit to the Whitney Biennale.
The technique that perfectly reproduced the painting style of a master in the past was excellent, but no personality could be found there.
The people who watched the presentation ceremony with anticipation could not hide their disappointment, and the boy, no, painter Ko Hun, held a knife as if to show his will.
Ko Hun, who cut the self-portrait with a knife, finally showed his original work by tearing apart the drawing paper with both hands.
Ko Hun’s second sunflower, which was painted with melted oil pastels, shone brighter than his first work.
Only the shape was a sunflower, and I couldn’t help but admire the brilliant yellow color reminiscent of the sun.
Asked what his goal as an artist was, Ko Hun replied that he wanted to talk with people living in this era through his paintings.
For him, who was inspired by the person who made pancakes, it seems that this era itself is an artistic object to communicate with.
Art historian Caroline Streak commented that Ko Hun sharply criticized the tendency of some artists to pursue only unique, different, and unusual works.
Caroline Streak explained, ” With this work Artist Ko Hun is saying that he won’t comply with the mask that has been cast on him, but he will stick to his own way in line with the times.”
This is another self-realization similar to Henry Marceau’s work which recognizes the social and personal gap through the shadows and sublimates it into the realm of individualization.
Both Artists who gave different answers showed the ability to recognize and accept others, and Professor Caroline Streak claims that this is truly the contemporary art that is supported by academia.
Art critic Pierre Curtion, meanwhile, praised by quoting philosopher Jill Deleuze “all painters summarize the history of painting in their own way,” saying that Henry Marceau and Ko Hun are representative of the contemporary and a connection to the disconnected history of painting.
Lim Speranza (The Times)
Jang Mirae drank coffee while reading an article in the Times.
She was pleased to watch Ko Hun clarify himself.
It was only last year when she was anxious about whether Ko Hun could overcome the rough Art world or endure it, but now he was evaluated like Henry Marceau.
‘Good.’
Jang Mirae praised Ko Hun rather than giving a critical evaluation.
One would have been on a high horse if they sold a piece for $14 million, but Ko Hun never forgot his relationship with the public and contemporary artists.
“It’s time to get over it.”
Jang Mirae felt it was time for the art world to get out of the wounds of self-examination and self-destruction.
In the early 20th century, during the two world wars, artists realized the helplessness of their beloved art.
In the face of the madness and violence of war, music, art, and literature were simply used as a means of propaganda.
The artists were in despair.
As industrialization began, they, who were subordinated to power, gradually became independent of the aristocracy and were able to perform art in the form they wanted completely for the masses.
But there was nothing they could do in the face of great violence.
Artists at the time, who considered the history of painting meaningless from the time when mankind first left murals, destroyed all previous forms.
Instead of destroying the form and creating new things, only the act of destruction remained before despair.
That self-criticism was postmodernism.
It was anti-rationalism.
History has been cut off, and only an unknown scream has eroded the 20th century.
Destroyed form, so there was no medium.
The artists didn’t want to be understood by themselves, and that’s how art drifted away from the public.
Postmodernism, which had completely isolated itself historically and socially, still had an impact throughout the art world.
Jang Mirae as an artist thought that the Art world should get out of that trauma now.
Although it has escaped from the elite-centered art of modernism, it has been judged that another change is needed in postmodernism, which is completely excluded from the public and history.
Even if it seemed meaningless in the face of physical power, she believed that it functions by comforting, enjoying, and empathizing with people.
She tried to approach the essence of art, which is a means of communication to express herself and understand others.
For her, the old motto was the only reliable comrade.
‘I should have gone with them’
Jang Mirae folded her smartphone and stretched.
She put down the still-steaming coffee and stood in front of the canvas that she was working on.
TRIVIA
Lucio Fontana (1899 – 1968). An Argentine artist who achieved spatialism by tearing or punching canvas and dealing with elements of painting and ridicule together.
2018 London Sotheby’s auction of contemporary art. The moment the faceless painter Banksy’s [Balloon and Girl] was sold, the framed work was shredded by the shredder installed inside the canvas. Later, when it was revealed that it was intended by Artist Banksy, Sotheby’s senior director Alex Brankchik left a message shortly after the incident, saying, “We were banked.”
