Horse as Art Object

Painter Zhang expresses fascination with animals in his art pieces

Zhang Dong-moon is no ordinary painter because his art only concerns horses. In every one of his creations there are horses in various forms, with other objects such as flowers and birds. The animal's beauty has been thoroughly analyzed and taken apart to give new meaning.
Zhang has experimented with the image of the horse in various ways on the principle that the form of beauty would stay constant to the extent that the animal controls the mind of the painter. The painter is so fascinated by the beauty of the horse that he even forgot to make excuses to part with the horse.
In other words, Zhang would accept any form of image that the animal projects. The refined beauty of the horse, especially, its curve lines make up the esthetic value that his own formative language can produce.
In analyzing the structure of the horse, he approaches the framework for his painting from the structural view point, too. The practice doesn't leave room for natural and emotional expressions on the canvas because it is so precisely made up.
The painter makes his painting work solid mixing lines and curves, leaving nothing but cold images as a result. His art pieces are made of continuous cubic images due to their divisions and taping work, along with water drops. Those mixes of horizontal and geometric patterns appear to be so solid that they leave no room for other things. Fully aware of this, the painter brings in birds, flowers, and leaves, along with music instruments such as cellos and violins. These instruments help soften geometric images to prevent them from becoming too rigid. The process of reinterpreting natural and man-made matters into an integrated structure is like the secret technique of magicians. The formative interpretation of making organic matters into simple and abridged drawings belongs to a special domain. The painter wants to create formative structure that doesn't exist in the world to realize new human esthetic value, which is different from natural beauties.
The formative beauty he creates is the product of his own language and humane value. The beauty of things that man creates is the right given to man and it will achieve an entirely new beauty different from natural beauty through the ability to tell beauty and technology to produce things that man can create.
The painter has been using the function given to him in a rational way, rather than emotional ways, which explains the reason for the existence of brilliant rational power images in his artwork. That doesn't mean that his art pieces are dry as far as emotional appeal is concerned. Rather they give out extremely beautiful things for viewers to confirm through images created by geometric structures.
Zhang held seven solo exhibitions so far, in addition to participating in over 300 group exhibitions the India Trienale and the Korea Academy of Arts Invitational Exhibition. He also won a number of awards at renowned-exhibitions in the country and abroad including the Korea Grand Fine Art Exhibition and the Figurative Grand Art Exhibition.
He also was a judge in a number of exhibitions including the Korea Grand Art Exhibition figurative art display and Daejeon City Grand Fine Art Exhibition. nw

Painter Zhang Dong-moon

Creation; 45.5 x 91 cm; Acrylic on Canvas; 2006

Creation; 30 x 30 cm; Acrylic on Canvas; 2006