Kyungsoo Ahn "Eine kleine Nacht. The night is short"

The Museum of Moscow and the Triumph Gallery present a solo exhibition by South Korean artist Gyeongsu Ahn “Eine kleine Nacht. The night is short." He is known for his large-scale paintings, the main theme of which is familiar urban spaces.

A new series of works by Gyeongsu An has become a poetic reflection on the fast-paced everyday life and the complex structure of memory. The artist depicts trivial objects and spaces: lanterns, city illumination, the light of windows, sunsets and dawns, the glare of headlights, the fires of the outskirts, reflections and reflections from nowhere. “I paint familiar nights and days. It is a hectic everyday life that comes from the future and is frozen in an illusion. Sooner or later, it will take the form of flat layers that exist only in our memories or records,” says Kyungsoo Ahn.

Despite the fact that the artist is known for large-scale works, for this project he created works of small format - fragments of landscapes of a city at night. The exposition will also be supplemented by the polyptych "Windy Day". While working on the project, Kyungsoo Ahn took a lot of photographs and later turned to the pictures taken to create paintings, trying to convey the emotions of what he saw: “Without realizing it, I seem to be able to see my feelings through the landscape,” he says.

The exhibition is a journey through the city of N at night, and its name - Eine kleine Nacht - literally indicates how short the night is. The artist borrowed it from Mozart. This is the name of Serenade No 13 Eine kleine Nachtmusik (“Little Night Serenade”), literally translated as a small night song.

The architectural structure of the exhibition will enhance the atmosphere of the night that reigns on the canvases: the audience will find themselves in complete darkness and will be able to wander between fires, lamps, lanterns and rays of light, depicted with photographic accuracy characteristic of Gyeongsu An.

For the Museum of Moscow, the exhibition “Eine kleine Nacht. The Night is Short” is the second project dedicated to South Korean art. In August 2021, the museum, together with the Triumph Gallery, presented the Moscow-Seoul: Common Ideas project, dedicated to the works of contemporary Russian and South Korean artists whose creative trajectories are somehow connected with the two capitals.

Gyonsu Ana’s first solo exhibition in Moscow was held at the Triumph Gallery in 2017. The exposition at the Museum of Moscow will continue a long-term project, within which the Triumph Gallery, in collaboration with other institutions, presents works of Korean contemporary art to the public.

Gyungsu An

Born in Seoul in 1975. He studied at Dankook University, where he received a bachelor’s degree, and then at Hongik University, where he received a master’s degree in fine arts. Participated in art residences such as Gyeonggi Creation Center (Songam Island, Republic of Korea), GlogauAIR Art Residency Berlin (Berlin, Germany), Baikal Nomadic Residency Program (Russia, Irkutsk). He is also the winner of numerous Korean art awards. Lives and works in Seoul.