“Artificial City: Red Roof” (1984) is a piece belonging to Son’s major series of the 1980s. In this phase, Son frequently adopted intense, disruptive techniques to create a sense of speed, leaving scratch marks by using a sharp knife instead of a brush. The theme of the “artificial city” may have first emerged during his college days, but it was expressed in full form during the Ahyeon-dong years. In contrast with the indigenous ambience often readily apparent in his earlier works, this series is unique in its use of major motifs such as skyscrapers and shops with their steel shutters lowered; trees with their branches fallen; poor hillside villages crowded with shacks, and suburban landscapes and busy streets. The dark brown landscape where houses are crowded
against one another along the gentle slope of the hills stands in stark visual contrast with the grey-white buildings filling the right portion of the plane. The urban landscape twisted in such a grotesque manner strongly conveys a bleak, gloomy atmosphere, while rough scratches all over the canvas convey visually the heavy psychological pressure of the artist as he gazes at urbanization. This expressiveness powerfully delivers Son’s will to expose political manipulation as he looks behind the curtain with uncontrollable anger and resentment.
Son Sang-ki (1949-1988) graduated from the Department of Painting at Wonkwang University in 1981. He held several solo exhibitions at multiple venues including Dongdeok Museum in 1981; Hangil Gallery in 1983; Wellside Gallery in 1984; Imok Gallery in 1986; and Hoam Gallery in 1987. He also participated in group exhibitions including “1983 Controversial Artists” at Seoul Museum in 1984 and “Tricenarian Pioneers of Our Times” at Geurimmadang Min in 1986. Posthumous exhibitions of his work have included “Controversial Artist Who Died Prematurely: Confirming His Genius” at Hangaram Museum of Seoul Arts Center in 2001; “Exhibition in Memory of Son Sang-ki: A 20-Year Retrospective” at National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, currently MMCA, in 2008; and “Flowers That Never Fade―Son Sang-ki” at Jinnam Culture & Arts Center in 2011. Son was the recipient of the Excellence Award at the Honam Culture Festival in 1970; the Bronze Prize at the Figurative Exhibition of Gusangjeon in 1975; the Silver Prize at the
Figurative Exhibition of Gusangjeon in 1976; and the Bronze Prize at Korean Modern Art Competition in 1981.
Son suffered from lordosis caused by rickets in childhood but overcame the resulting hardships. This is reflected in his works, helping him to form a unique oeuvre of his own. Son’s oeuvre can be roughly classified into three periods. From 1969 to 1981, he mainly focused on lyrical works with indigenous themes. From 1979 onwards, after coming to Seoul and settling in the Ahyeon-dong neighborhood, he threw himself into the series “Artificial City,” which portrayed the urbanization of Seoul and mechanization of
civilization from a critical perspective. From 1980 to 1986, Son worked on the series “Drunken Girl” based on the red-light district in Ahyeon-dong, as well as the series “Flowers that Never Fade” in which his physical disabilities had been accepted and sublimated into his works. Knowing that he might not live very long due to his disabilities, Son left many of these works to his family and hometown.
