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....................The Korean painter Si-Young Yang, born in 1999, says that he did not have the opportunity to attend an art college in order to learn the artistic craft in context to an academic canon. However, he explains, this was not a disadvantage for him; on the contrary, it led him to pursue his artistic inclinations in the way he had already done as a child. For him it is important to translate his personal mood and emotional state directly into painting, largely uninfluenced by instructions. Yang is convinced that authenticity in art comes from this unadulterated perception of reality which leads the brushwork to an adequate expression. To reach this, it is necessary to give freedom to the line as the actual medium of design and shaping, without, however, slipping into aimless arbitrariness. The aim is always to give the figure and the objects depicted an optimal presence so that the painting can capture the viewer's mood.
....................Under these premises, Si-Young Yang designs the internal forms of his pictures with emotionally charged contour lines, which he either leaves out of the color environment as underpaintings of different colors or sets them light-toned on the background as color cords. The texture of the surrounding colored areas partially takes over the tectonics of the contours, giving the impression that the things and figures are emitting a vibration frequency into their surroundings. The layers of color lying on top of each other like a relief thus acquire a peculiar liveliness. Even if isolated human figures or groups of figures, directly gazing the viewer in a frontal view, rest hieratically within themselves, and even if the plants and vase objects in the still lifes stand statically next to each other, Yang transfers by brushwork vividly and dynamicly his feelings into his pictures. The impression of a subtle vibration arises in which the shapes are located, as if they were exposed to an immanent and permanent frequency.
....................If we assume that all possible and impossible frequencies surround and pulse through us every day, be it the natural electromagnetic waves of light or the artificial microwaves
of our high-tech devices, what Yang presents to us in terms of figurative vibration in his pictures appears to be everyday reality to correspond almost naturalistically to today's civilization. The correspondence even extends to the physical world of atoms, as we know from the latest research in the field of the so called quantum mechanics that matter at the atomiv level is constantly filled with a slight tremor and is never at rest. Although Yang's pictures may in some respects superficially follow a simple childish pattern, their underlying motif and method at the same time testify to an accurate representation of present existence in the oscillatory character of a vibrating basic state of mind. This is what makes the images aesthetic and current. The abstract figurative paintings that are effective in them seem to be in the tradition of Paul Klee, but go beyond classical modernism and give modern civilization an appropriate face.
....................The figurative vibrations in Si-Young Yang's images are by no means critical or defensive of the busy reality. Unlike the Japanese painter Yoshitomo Nara with his "Angry Girls," who uses a spoken "Fuck you" in his picture, Yang uses text elements such as "Kiss," "Happy" and "I love you" within his paintings. He lets his characters appear in a positively charged relationship culture. Marriage scenes, lovers and circles of friends populate his canvases and describe the subjects' belonging to the human family. At the same time, despite their symbolic scheme, they reveal the expression of individuality and self-confidence, even of pride. The motifs are also bathed in a colorful cheerfulness that radiates a relaxed joy of life. Here, Si-Young Yang brings his optimistic attitude to life into his paintings, whose cheerful mood and open emotionality radiate to the viewer and want to give them "good vibrations".
....................Baden-Baden, November 25, 2023 |
