Painter Lee Seok-ju(서양화가 이석주,イ・ソクチュ), who has constantly pursued works in hyperrealism since the 1970s, when he was a Hongik University student and when the abstract expressionism was in full swing in Korea, is thought to belong to the first generation of the Korean hyperrealistic painters. His(이석주 화백, 李石柱 作家) works are being exhibited in the special invitation exhibit ‘Space of Cogitation’ at ‘ARARIO GALLERY(아라리오갤러리 천안)’ in Cheonan City, Chungnam Province from May 15 through Aug. 12. We interviewed him in the outdoors rest space of the exhibit place.

[Q] Would you tell me about the relationship between your works in your earlier ‘Wall’ series and the identity of the modern man?

[A]“I tried to seek the validity of the hyperrealistic painting, being interested in the meaning of the existence of ego alienated in the meaningless Alltag (everyday life), blindness and lack of communication, and objectively and coolly overlooking reality.

In this respect, the‘Wall’series of the earlier period with the grim feelings and the ‘Alltag’ works objectively describing urban scenery viewed from the perspectives of grouped crowds and outsiders were intended to give critical points of view upon modern men.”

In his works of the late 1980s, the combination of the Alltag of cities and the maximized desire appears through the recombination of realistic objets. It may be that the objets naturally developed connecting the Pop Art with the hyperrealism through the expanded portrayal of fragmented body parts and the objets.

[Q] From the 1990s you pulled up the internal scenery of your ego hidden at the bottom of your consciousness, which had been confined in reality, so that you could combine natural things such as trains, horses and empty chairs with artificial objets.

[A]“By arbitrarily replacing such symbolic forms, I tried to maximize the contrast effect through the unfamiliar meeting of things by way of dépaysement so that I could show the internal scenery in and out of the connection between Alltag and imagination.

It may be seen as due to the repetition of the consistent theme of asking about the meaning of existence in the finitude of time that old books and worn-out, brittle paper very often and constantly appear in my works.”