APRIL 21, 2020 

Photograph: David Zwirner website 

This online presentation of works by Yun Hyong-keun opened in parallel with the artist’s recent exhibition on view from January 17–March 7, 2020 at the gallery’s 537 West 20th Street location in New York. One of the most significant Korean artists of the twentieth century, Yun is widely recognized for his signature abstract compositions, which engage with yet transcend Eastern and Western art movements and visual traditions.

Photograph: David Zwirner website

Focusing on the artist’s work from the late 1980s and 1990s, the exhibition features distinctive abstract paintings from this late period of Yun’s career. 
Included here are a number of works on paper from the artist's solo exhibition, along with a selection of small paintings that have been made available exclusively online.

Photograph: David Zwirner website

Yun created his compositions by adding layer upon layer of paint onto raw canvas, linen, or Hanji, often applying the next coat before the last one had dried. Working directly on his studio floor, he produced simple arrangements of intensely dark, vertical bands surrounded by untouched areas. Yun’s mature works of the 1990s, of which several examples are presented for the first time in his current exhibition, show the refinement of his interests and technique to an acute, monumental level.

Photograph: David Zwirner website

In these later works, Yun’s abstract forms become larger and darker, lines in some of his paintings become tighter and straighter, and the edges of his forms appear less diffuse and more defined. The artist’s approach to monochromatic abstraction centered on the use of an extremely limited palette of dark pigments that he allowed to bleed naturally over unprimed canvas. He also experimented with the absorbent qualities of Hanji, a Korean paper made from the bark of the mulberry tree.

Online Viewing Room