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Lot Essay
Born in 1973, Kim Doo-Jin received his BFA in 1999 and MFA in 2004 from Seoul National University in Korea. Since Kim's first solo exhibition in 1999, he has been successfully achieving constant recognition with breathtaking developments in technical skill and artistic conception. He is the recipient of prestigious awards including the Artists of Tomorrow in 2010 from the International Media Art Festival. Kim has been actively participating in numerous international exhibitions at the notable institutes such as Art Lab Aichi, Nagoya, National Museum of Art, Buenos Aires, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, among many others.
Kim has been developing the Skeleton series since 2009, employing 3D computer graphics. In the series, Kim explores the electronic medium, yet maintaining a consistent theme through his artistic career: life, death, and the social bias on gender and race. Diverse images of skull and skeleton appear in the earlier works of Kim's paintings. It is this series, however, the artist takes the skeleton as the main figure, revealing the shadow of death in a direct manner. Sweet Conspiracy (Lot 187) and The Birth of Venus (Lot 188) featured here display elaborate computerized 3D images of perfectly proportioned skeletons, displaying the artist's dexterous skill and extensive manual labour. Kim's endeavor to create delicate and tangible texture is successfully embodied in these works.
Kim's body of work from this series can be largely divided into two types: the original work and the modified work from the master's paintings. Sweet Conspiracy is a representative example for the former and The Birth of Venus for the latter, which keeps the same title from the well-known painting by a French academic painter, William A. Bouguereau. In both works, Kim twists the conventional conception and suggests his own interpretation of ideal beauty. Bouguereau, a staunch traditionalist and realist painter, was considered to be one of the greatest painters and gained wide fame throughout Europe in his own time, due to his excellence in depicting vital human body with enchantingly glowing skin. In his digital The Birth of Venus, Kim removed the skin from the figures in Bouguereau's painting to unveil skeletons. In both works, the viewer can hardly identify race, gender, and judge physical beauty of the figures. Instead of applying any biased idea on them, we are fascinated by the oddly graceful and enchantingly beautiful skeletons and the stripped truth they deliver to us. The two pieces featured here are outstanding evidences of Kim's visually striking conceptual images, and it is only the beginning of what is more to come from this promising artist.
Kim has been developing the Skeleton series since 2009, employing 3D computer graphics. In the series, Kim explores the electronic medium, yet maintaining a consistent theme through his artistic career: life, death, and the social bias on gender and race. Diverse images of skull and skeleton appear in the earlier works of Kim's paintings. It is this series, however, the artist takes the skeleton as the main figure, revealing the shadow of death in a direct manner. Sweet Conspiracy (Lot 187) and The Birth of Venus (Lot 188) featured here display elaborate computerized 3D images of perfectly proportioned skeletons, displaying the artist's dexterous skill and extensive manual labour. Kim's endeavor to create delicate and tangible texture is successfully embodied in these works.
Kim's body of work from this series can be largely divided into two types: the original work and the modified work from the master's paintings. Sweet Conspiracy is a representative example for the former and The Birth of Venus for the latter, which keeps the same title from the well-known painting by a French academic painter, William A. Bouguereau. In both works, Kim twists the conventional conception and suggests his own interpretation of ideal beauty. Bouguereau, a staunch traditionalist and realist painter, was considered to be one of the greatest painters and gained wide fame throughout Europe in his own time, due to his excellence in depicting vital human body with enchantingly glowing skin. In his digital The Birth of Venus, Kim removed the skin from the figures in Bouguereau's painting to unveil skeletons. In both works, the viewer can hardly identify race, gender, and judge physical beauty of the figures. Instead of applying any biased idea on them, we are fascinated by the oddly graceful and enchantingly beautiful skeletons and the stripped truth they deliver to us. The two pieces featured here are outstanding evidences of Kim's visually striking conceptual images, and it is only the beginning of what is more to come from this promising artist.