Lot Essay
Executed in 2004, David Korty’s Untitled (Trafalgar Square) is a vibrant example of the artist’s distinctive urban landscapes. Through deliquescent washes of red, blue, yellow and green, Korty captures the play of light amid the throng of buildings, trees and people. Operating in the manner of a nineteenth-century flâneur, Korty wanders cities worldwide – initially his native Los Angeles, and later Venice and London – seeking to comprehend the chaotic arenas of human existence. Frequently working from his own photographs, Korty distils his subjects to the point of abstraction, instigating a contemporary dialogue with aesthetics of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Combining drips and splashes of colour with a precise and exacting sense of line, works such as Untitled (Trafalgar Square) render the metropolitan ambience in glowing technicolour detail.