Fungalland and the Stranded Mother Whale

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China’s Desert
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Finnish calendar,
which names its
months after the
Tina Kim
weather and assoIn her moving exhibition of paintings
ciated conditions
“Fungalland and the Stranded Mother
for harvest: Moss
Whale,” Eemyun Kang returned to her
month, Snow
self-created realm of Fungi to expand its
month, Death
mythos. She has said that she first got
month. In these
the idea of the stranded whale from the
paintings, the
Inuit myth of Big Raven, a male deity
hazy, washed-out
who saves a marooned whale by eating
skies of Fungalmushrooms from the forest to gain
land hang over
strength. To this story, Kang added her
blended strokes,
own memories of the mountain-enclosed
forests of her home in southeast Korea— with vivid shades
of magenta emergthe location of the celebrated whale
carvings of the Daegokcheon Stream Pet- ing from muddy,
ochre-streaked
roglyphs. She has written of her feelings
green shadows.
of displacement living abroad, and reKäthe Kollwitz, Two Men Charging, 1902, soft-ground etching
Some details are
called a memorable incident in London,
on heavy tan wove paper, 127⁄8" x 191⁄2". Galerie St. Etienne.
clearer than othwhen in 2006 a bottlenose whale swam
ers, such as the dainty leaves on
up the Thames and became trapped in
two world wars and lost a son and grandbranches surrounding the corrugated
the shallow water.
son to the German war machine, she is
fungal shelf of Forest month. Yet the
This show consisted of nine oil-onalso recognized as one of the world’s
whale itself was elusive in the paintings
linen paintings from a 2012 series of 12,
great printmakers. She could draw with
selected for this show; it was dissolved
as well as a single ink drawing from
the skill and elegance of a Renaissance
in stages, so that the image of the crea2013. Each painting represents a month
draftsman even as she chronicled proture appears and disappears.
of the year, and takes its title from the
found despair; formal beauty was the
Kang’s works do not end
balm she offered her brutal times.
at their frames, as was eviThis fine show examines her most imdent when two paintings
portant work, five print cycles that she
hung side by side—Mould
began at age 26 with “Revolt of the
month and Death month—
Weavers” and ended with the series
tended slowly to merge.
“Death” 44 years later. The “Revolt” seThus Fungalland is posries includes etchings, lithographs, and
sessed of cyclical seasons,
drawings based on historical events in
and Kang’s whale is not
Silesia in 1844. In the best of these, Kollsaved, in the sense of
witz takes us into the homes of
being removed from her
weavers—small, dark rooms, riven by
land-locked trap. Rather,
shafts of light—and makes that stark
she is an abstraction that
world palpable.
persists just beyond disThe artist’s second and greatest cycle,
cernment, ever caught in
“Peasant War,” completed a decade later,
the lush strokes of the ver- includes a stunning, sepia-toned lithodant surroundings.
graph of two men dragging a plow while a
—Kiki Turner woman walks behind. The dark landscape
suggests wounded flesh; the figures are
doubled over from exertion. At any moUP NOW
ment, it seems, they may fall into the
grave. In the famous Uprising (1902-3),
legendary leader Black Anna throws up
her arms to urge on the peasant insurrectionists. Nearby hangs a study for it—
two men from the crowd, their teeth
Galerie St. Etienne
bared as they charge. Because those faces
Through December 28
would have overpowered the composiSometimes the work of
tion, Kollwitz toned them down in the
German artist Käthe Kollfinal etching. The show sparks many revwitz (1867–1945) is overelations about how this artist worked.
shadowed by the myth. An
activist who lived through
Eemyun Kang, Forest month, 2012, oil on linen, 941⁄2" x 59". Tina Kim.
—Mona Molarsky
Eemyun Kang
Käthe
Kollwitz
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