Byron Kim (American, born 1961). <em>Sunday Painting 1/16/11</em>, 2011. Acrylic and gouache on canvas, mounted on panel, 14 × 14 in. (35.6 × 35.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Contemporary Art Council in honor of Eugenie Tsai and Patrick Amsellem, 2011.37.6. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, CUR.2011.37.6_James_Cohan_Gallery_photo.jpg)

Byron Kim (American, born 1961). Sunday Painting 1/16/11, 2011. Acrylic and gouache on canvas, mounted on panel, 14 × 14 in. (35.6 × 35.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Contemporary Art Council in honor of Eugenie Tsai and Patrick Amsellem, 2011.37.6. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, CUR.2011.37.6_James_Cohan_Gallery_photo.jpg)

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Are all of Byron Kim's paintings "diaries" like these works?

Not all of his works, no. This particular series, which is still ongoing, has a diary-like feel. Many of Kim's works do focus on the intersection of the personal and the language of Modernism.

How old is the artist?

As of 2017, Byron Kim is 56 years old.

Tell me more.

These paintings were produced by the artist Byron Kim. Each week, on Sunday, the artist paints the sky and writes down his feelings, thoughts, and life events for that week or day. He paints the sky accompanied specifically by observations for the day, usually pertaining to his family. In this way there is a micro-macrocosmic aspect to his work. Having completed over 500 paintings to date, Kim plans to continue the series until the end of his life. The paintings have an almost cinematic quality to them, establishing a personal narrative.

These are so expressive.

Since the winter of 2001, the artist of these works, Byron Kim, has produced these Sunday paintings. Each week, he renders the sky and writes down his feelings, thoughts, and life events for that week or day.

Kim plans to continue the series until the end of his life, having completed over 500 works in the series to date!

These works play with the existential, showing a personal narrative being subsumed by the sky. They also explore the impossibility of capturing the vastness of the sky in one painting.

Is the artist trying to capture the sky exactly as he sees it?

I know that his works are metaphorical in a sense, but in the process of creating the painting does the artist experience any difficulties trying to specifically portray the sky, since the sky is always moving and it does not stay constantly the same.

Great question. I think so but more than anything I get the feeling that it's an impression because, as you mentioned in your last message, the sky and clouds are constantly moving.

Perhaps he is playing with this idea of permanence vs transience. Kim doesn't read the paintings after he completes them. They are snapshots of fleeting moments in time.

Sunday Painting 1/16/11

Byron Kim

Contemporary Art

On View:

Each Sunday for the last two decades, Byron Kim has painted a single view of the sky, overlaid with written ruminations from the day. Kim captures the ever-changing formations and shades of blues, grays, and wispy whites in quick, vigorous brushstrokes, treating the canvas as if it were a window or a skylight. The flat passages of diaristic text insert the artist’s daily experiences onto this shared backdrop of human experience. Through this weekly routine, Kim connects the seemingly ordinary moments of life to a fuller, cosmic sense of time.

ARTIST Byron Kim, American, born 1961

MEDIUM Acrylic and gouache on canvas, mounted on panel

DATES 2011

DIMENSIONS 14 × 14 in. (35.6 × 35.6 cm) frame: 14 3/4 × 14 3/4 × 3 in. (37.5 × 37.5 × 7.6 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 2011.37.6

CREDIT LINE Gift of the Contemporary Art Council in honor of Eugenie Tsai and Patrick Amsellem

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Byron Kim (American, born 1961). Sunday Painting 1/16/11, 2011. Acrylic and gouache on canvas, mounted on panel, 14 × 14 in. (35.6 × 35.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Contemporary Art Council in honor of Eugenie Tsai and Patrick Amsellem, 2011.37.6. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, CUR.2011.37.6_James_Cohan_Gallery_photo.jpg)

IMAGE overall, CUR.2011.37.6_James_Cohan_Gallery_photo.jpg. Image courtesy of James Cohan Gallery

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RIGHTS STATEMENT © Byron Kim/ Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, New York/SHANGHAI

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