Ugo Rondinone

Small Violet Mountain

2016

Lacquered bronze sculpture by Yayoi Kusama. Original mould executed in 1974; casted in 1994. This work is number 20 from a limited edition of 30 plus 1 artist's proof. Incised with ...

Park Seo-Bo Ecriture No. 1 - 06 ((2006). Edition 72/99 Print (casting with handmade paper), hand-coloring with acrylic Signed, titled, dated and numbered in pencil 76 x 55.5cm (shee...

Yuko Nasaka (1938) Untitled Resin and lacquer on board 45.5 x 45.5 cm (17.9 x 17.9 in) not considering the frame Executed in 1963 About the Artist: Born in Osaka in 1938, Yuko Nasak...

Before You can Entertain Others... You Must First Learn to Entertain Yourself by David Shrigley 14 colour screenprint with a varnish overlay 75 x 56 cm Edition 40 of 125 Signed, date...

Ugo Rondinone's Targets are sprayed, blurry rings of color that, despite their apparent simplicity, pulsate, creating an illusion of depth. The illusory visual energy generates a psy...

Archival pigment ink on Innova Etching Cotton Rag 315 gsm. Edition of 150.

Silkscreen in colors on Rising 4-ply Museum Board 60 x 60 in (152.40 x 152.40 cm)

Yongjin Han was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1934. After the Korean War—in which he fought, lying about his age in order to enlist—he was one of six students admitted to the sculpture program at the Seoul National University. At the time of his enrollment little of his native city remained intact; nonetheless, he had never felt more responsible to his work, firm in the conviction that artistic expression is every bit as essential to life and human nature as eating, drinking, or breathing. One of Han’s teachers was Kim Chong Yung, a pioneer of Korean abstract sculpture, and by the time of his graduation he had adopted the abstraction that had seized both Europe and the United States several years before. . In 1967 he relocated to the USA, where he studied at Dartmouth and Columbia. Over the course of his long career the artist returned to Korea with frequency and made extended stays in Japan and Europe. Trips to Korea signified something more than mere homesickness: Han’s work, though made largely in America, remained grounded in his rich cultural heritage. Korea rests on a bedrock of granite, and freestanding sculpture produced of the stone has for centuries demarcated sites of historical and religious significance. Han’s sculpture bridges this past with modernity. Richard A. Born, former Curator at the Smart Museum at the University of Chicago, has said that Han “brought Korea’s tradition of direct stone carving out of figuration into a refined, non-objective abstraction.” For his part, Han put very little stock in designations; his focus, instead, was on the stone itself. His pieces explore a certain harmonization with nature. Han, when describing his work, said, "As stone has been around since the beginning of time, it has much to teach us if we care to slow down and listen." He believed that each stone has its own history, character, and energy and that his task was to draw out these inherently spiritual qualities. He described his process as a “dialogue” with his material: "The stone tells me it has an itch in a certain spot, so I scratch it—and we both feel better!" Han worked alone and with manual tools, and the process is arduous. Carving stone this way takes time, and, what’s more, required great force—yet Han’s sculptures, even the monumental ones, are, as friend and fellow artist David Parker says, “all gentle grace and warmth” … [the sculptor] “engages with the stone as an equal—like wayfarers meeting on a path, Han and a stone spend time together and when they part, both are marked and changed forever.” Yongjin Han's career spanned decades and continents, and included several prestigious large-scale public commissions. In Seoul his work can be found at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, the IE Young Museum of Contemporary Art, the Whanki Museum, the Ewha Woman’s University Museum, Posong High School, and the 88 Olympics...