.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Offered for the first time in Christie's Hong Kong, Hwang Yong-Yop, along with Sohn Jang-Seop, is best recognised for his signature style of combining abstraction with figuration in the history of Korean modern art. Another similarity the two painters share is the poetic commentary on the historical wounds and political reality of Korea, which deliver a profound message on the universal truth of the ephemerality of human life. While Sohn's primary subject has been the Korean landscape, Hwang has painted the critical situation of humanity throughout his artistic career across, which spans more than six decades.
Hwang was born in North Korea and studied for two years at Pyong-Yang University. After the Korean War, his family defected from North Korea and settled in Seoul. Hwang resumed his study at Hong Ik University, a noted art college in South Korea, receiving his BA in 1957. As his 1965 Woman 2 (Lot 261), 1975 Human (Lot 260), and 1996 One Day (Lot 259) displays, Hwang's paintings are heavily incorporated with his childhood memory of growing up under a oppressive dictatorship. They are the expression of the artist on the raw emotion, fateful sorrow and tragedy of human fate under oppression. Although his in-between abstract and figurative paintings have a very different appearance from Zhang Xiaogang's famous Bloodline series or Zeng Fanzhi's Mask series, which depict the experience of human oppression during the Cultural Revolution, Hwang's paintings are very similar in that they explain how the physical and psychological condition of human life can be critically influenced by a specific political reality. These Chinese contemporary masters' works touch on the universal sensitivity of a natural human desire for spiritual freedom. Through his own experience, Hwang's sincere expressions of humanity bring forth a universal empathy beyond his personal memory. These three marvellous works from three different decades respectively epitomise a genuine poignancy created through his painstakingly laboured, multi-layered texture and delicate colour compositions. Hwang's paintings featured here demonstrate his profound understandings of human desire for ultimate spiritual freedom.
Hwang was born in North Korea and studied for two years at Pyong-Yang University. After the Korean War, his family defected from North Korea and settled in Seoul. Hwang resumed his study at Hong Ik University, a noted art college in South Korea, receiving his BA in 1957. As his 1965 Woman 2 (Lot 261), 1975 Human (Lot 260), and 1996 One Day (Lot 259) displays, Hwang's paintings are heavily incorporated with his childhood memory of growing up under a oppressive dictatorship. They are the expression of the artist on the raw emotion, fateful sorrow and tragedy of human fate under oppression. Although his in-between abstract and figurative paintings have a very different appearance from Zhang Xiaogang's famous Bloodline series or Zeng Fanzhi's Mask series, which depict the experience of human oppression during the Cultural Revolution, Hwang's paintings are very similar in that they explain how the physical and psychological condition of human life can be critically influenced by a specific political reality. These Chinese contemporary masters' works touch on the universal sensitivity of a natural human desire for spiritual freedom. Through his own experience, Hwang's sincere expressions of humanity bring forth a universal empathy beyond his personal memory. These three marvellous works from three different decades respectively epitomise a genuine poignancy created through his painstakingly laboured, multi-layered texture and delicate colour compositions. Hwang's paintings featured here demonstrate his profound understandings of human desire for ultimate spiritual freedom.