Skin of painting • Depth of painting

Kwon Young-jin (Art History)

Sungjin Kim is known for his painting of lips. His canvases are not very large, but close-up lips fill them, instantly grasping our attention. The viewers are once again surprised to see highly realistically represented lips. We hover around his painting to find out whether the work is a photo or a painting. We’re first attracted to the sensual lips, then again surprised to see that the realistic, and seemingly photographic, work is actually a painting. Even as we move onto other works, it’s hard to get over what we are seeing because of his realistic and meticulous representation of lips, and it seems like the slightly open lips just whispered something to us.  Whispering Lips that Try to Communicate with us by Ventriloquism I want to protrude two key phrases for Sungjin Kim’s works: ‘lips’ and ‘painterly depth.’ First of all, Kim only shows us the lower part of a face--lips and chin--without disclosing the eyes which, in general, immediately convey feelings and emotions. However, these lips leave behind a strong impact on us, and the whispers from the lips hover around our eyes and ears. The silent lips echo while brandishing an intense impression onto our eyes, like the echo of a ventriloquism performer. There is an American pop-artist, Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004), who was also attracted to lips. He produced sleek-finished female lips wearing red-lipstick, painted on large canvases. The subjects of his paintings are anonymous nude females, accentuating their lips (sometimes smoking lips), red nails or their nipples. Tom Wesselmann explicitly manifested American pop-art in the 60s with his successful representation of sensualism combined with commercial success. It appears that Kim’s works share these pop-artistic features with his emphasis on female lips and a smooth finish. Red lips could be a subject or symbol of social relationship in the contemporary world since people wear makeup to selectively expose their identities. When a woman wears nothing but red lipstick on an otherwise bare face, it means that she’s confident with her face. Also, we normally expect that a business-woman would wear full makeup. In recent years, such speculations toward makeup are extended to a much more complex domain as we now frequently see men wearing makeup; or, for example, the latest public makeup preference is to “go natural,” in other words, wearing makeup while pretending to not wear it. Wearing makeup is an impetus to emphasize physical beauty, yet, simultaneously, a defensive strategy to not expose one’s inner sentiment. Red lipstick is a tool that concisely shows such complex meanings of makeup, and emphasizing body parts by painting them red could be interpreted in a variety of ways, which can be traced back to primitive times (as a shamanistic context) or to a contemporary commercial fetish, provoked by glossy, finished red lips or nails.  Recently, and especially for this exhibition, Kim’s paintings are further extended to including features besides lips; we can trace the textures of wrinkled faces, a tongue shown through slightly parted lips, traces of saliva and mucus running down the face (or skin), or even faces floating or slightly submerged in water. All the while, they emit strong emotional sensations which cannot be explained simplistically in a pop-artistic context. Kim’s lips emphasize the squashed, damp, groping, permeating textual feelings, and they depart from simple iconographic meanings of red lips, and then are broadened to phenomenological experiences, enabling an embrace of life with its full texture and warmth. His lips could become a synecdoche of our bare, naked experience in the world. His paintings of lips signify the layers and grains of life, attainable through a bodily experience and fully formed sentiments. His paintings are a strictly visual representation, but the lips speak the unspeakable and represent the unrepresentable. Even after parting from his works, we are still strongly haunted by them, as if seeing hallucinations or hearing echoes. Augmenting this impact is the vivid feeling of skin textures, the temperature of water, and the texture of liquid.  Hyper-Realistic Touches that Caress the Skin of Painting It seems like Kim does not repudiate the common idea that his works provoke the eroticism of lips. However, sensual eroticism would not be enough to fully explain the charming aspects of his paintings. This is because Kim is seeking painterly depth and painterly touching--what pop-art had rejected. Pop-art works denied this by adopting photographic expression of images with their sleek finished surfaces and aim for commercial eroticism. In the 60s, the emergence of American pop-art and commercial images (widely rampant in the public) invaded the realm of high (or even pure) art, and the hyper-realism was a by-product of this syndrome which manifested photographs with a meticulous representation and mechanical reproduction. Artists used oil-paintings on canvas, but they did not allow traces of painterly brush strokes, wanting them to appear as if they are produced by a machine. They, consequently, show off the cold-hearted and deadpan sleek surfaces of the canvas. In the 20th century, when commercial culture and mechanical culture were dominant, such works truly represented the contemporary era. Upon a closer look, Kim’s realistic paintings do not share anything with the hyper-realism except its realistic technique. They seem identical at first sight, but they aim for contrasting purposes and adoptive processes. Of course, Kim relies on cameras and photographic images to capture the external features of his subjects, and he keeps records of staged images to find and to recall the images (or subjects). However, he chooses conventional painting techniques which were intentionally denied by America’s hyperrealism. He refers to photographed images, but avoids hyper-realism or photorealism techniques that mechanically project images in grids or deadpan brushstrokes.  Kim first paints the canvas with oil paints in an ivory-white color, and then paints the background in pale pastel colors. After this, he carefully paints close-up lips and faces after checking the dryness of his painting. He paints in many layers and applies numerous brushstrokes to portray even the tiniest wrinkles of lips and to properly convey the figure’s skin with depth and profundity. Kim’s painstaking painting procedures faithfully follow conventional oil-painting techniques. To him, photographic images are utilized only to maximize the degree of realistic painterly representation, rather than rejecting painterly representation. To Kim, similarity with a photo image is the composition of a close-up and cutting off unnecessary parts of the human face.  This is Kim’s latest solo exhibition since 2007, and we can see that Kim is seeking variations of his lip motif which he has adhered to for more than a decade. He imported image of water, candles, books, hair and Pierrot. Even on a close-up face, the lips are slightly deemphasized while the cheeks receive the main spotlight. With this, we can better concentrate on his painterly technique which was previously deemphasized with the protruded sensual eroticism of lips. The woman is painted in profile; the lips now almost border the canvas frame. Such composition arouses strong emotional resonance. Kim uses pale oil painting colors and paints in light strokes. Facing his works, we discover the skin of the figure corresponds to the skin (surface) of the painting. While Kim’s previously painted lips stirred us with provocative sensualism, now slightly defocused lips steer our attention to the depth of the skin and the profundity of the painting. Still, we have to note that his works remain very sensual; he strokes the surface of the painting with brushes as if caressing the skin of a woman. He finds pleasure in the convergence of representation and painterly surfaces. He meticulously pays attention to detail and takes great efforts to finish off the painting surface in perfection, as if the canvas is a woman painstakingly applying her makeup. Kim applies repeated brush strokes and acquires pale skin with great depth, thus producing emotional condolences to viewers.  Move Toward Painterly Eroticism from the Eroticism of Lips Kim’s painting of lips has evolved into an eroticism of technical mastery from imagerial eroticism; this can be only understood when we physically face the painting. His works that are reproduced in photographic images fail to convey to the viewer his masterful touches, the delicate and subtle painterly representation, effacing artist’s sensitivity (and awareness of his identity as an artist), comfort and metastasis of emotions.  His paintings rely on photograph-like exactitude and composition, but still convey humane warmth and empathic sentiments which photographs aim to eliminate. In other words, Kim’s works are distinguished from photographs, and we are constantly recalled to the empathic impetus of the painted subject, triggering compassion for life and retrospect on time that can only be displayed by manually finishing a painting. Kim’s paintings feature highly realistic details, similar to photographic representation; however, he does not simply record what he saw but, rather, captures images that we believe we saw or images that hover around our sentiments that unexpectedly emerge into our conscious realm. The disappointed feelings briefly seen from the profile of a beloved, the casual gesture of a friend in front us, the landscape of lips from which we cannot recall what we have heard, are all embedded onto the canvas in highly realistic and feasible ways. Kim caresses the painterly surface by retouching and adjusting the face and especially the lips. By this, he consoles the essay of life and joy and sorrow of the figure. His brushstrokes are endearing and consoling touches that are best produced after numerous painstaking painterly touches. With this, he creates a place where the surface of the canvas and the figure’s skin converge. With the emergence of photographs in the 20th century, some had said that it would be the end of painting; it is true that the existence and future of painting has been endangered many times. However, we have seen the return of painting, even in great splendor. At some point, paintings have come up with hyperrealism or photorealism features to counteract photographs, with aims to convey photograph-like cold-heartedness in which works are produced in a mechanical way. Kim, on the other hand, shows his own way to compete with photographs. He now discusses the essentials and principles of painting. It is well-known that the touching and heart-warming effects of Rembrandt’s works are caused by a red-color base on canvas and painterly touches. Kim shows that such painstaking hard work in painting and affection for the subject clearly brings out the unique essence of the painting, which is easily distinguished from photographs. Kim produces thin and delicate oil-painting works, similar to a very natural makeup technique. This allows a subtle mask to the subject, yet this mask is a metaphor for anyone regardless of gender, age or social class as long as he or she suffers the harsh reality of living in this world. Therefore, his efforts are a byproduct of his affection and concern for us all. His brushstrokes become a painterly impulse which infuses and arouses inner sentiments and deep emotions, which then permeate viewers’ hearts. His works are disguised with photographic frames and realistic representation, but what we witness is the ultimate victory of painting.