Please view details of “Migdal David” by Shay Kun
Shay Kun is an Israeli-born artist famous worldwide for his hyper-surrealist and photorealist works. The painter has turned over the landscape tradition. Especially, he works on a post-modern interpretation of the Hudson River School movement, a mid-19th century American landscapists group. These painters found the inspiration in Romanticism artworks. In general, Shay Kun’s art embodies in three series: Tear Drops, Lift Off (Hot Air Balloons), and Slums.
“Migdal David”
Shay Kun explores an original image of the Tower of David in Jerusalem and transforms it adding miraculous multicolored balloons. The author works with contrasts and prejudices. Specifically, Shay Kun reinterprets an ancient citadel located near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City with a new historical and visual layer. The current appearance dates to the Mamluk and Ottoman empire. Interestingly, the name “Migdal David” is from the Song of Songs: “Thy neck is like the Tower of David built with turrets” (Song of Songs, 4:4). From the 5th century CE the Byzantine historians believed this tower to coincide with the palace of King David.
In particular, his Hot Air Balloons series is an artistic fantasy, that combines different hardly connected objects and historical periods. For instance, in “Ottoman Jerusalem” Shay Kun changes the reality, all even usual objects acquire new appearances. Besides, his New York full of bright joyful and calm air balloons is a new place with new mood. “Manhattan Balloons” inspire to dream.
Interestingly,
Shay Kun inherited the Holocaust influence on his parents’ art. It can be noticed in his colorful painting deconstructions. His mother, Heddy Kun, depicted utopian landscapes of an ideal peaceful world. Conversely, Zeev Kun, allegorically showed a dark collapsed world.
Kings Gallery is a leading fine art gallery established in Jerusalem in 1995. We strive to collect and sell the highest quality historic and contemporary Israeli and International art. The gallery specializes primarily in artists from the early period of the 1920’s. Besides, Kings Gallery features leading up-and-coming young artists who will definitely be prominent names in the next few years.
