Legend C.D.

Kyu-Baik Hwang

This is an early, experimental print by Hwang, probably done after he left South Korea for Paris, where he studied printmaking at Atelier 17 in the late 1960s.

To create this abstract, dimensional image Hwang used combinations of collagraph, softground etching and other techniques developed at the atelier, including his using the simultaneous method of color printing that is achieved by using the different viscosities of inks and printing in a single pass through the press.

Hwang later went on to specialize in color mezzotint, for which he is best known. The South Korean born printmaker moved to New York in 1970 before returning to South Korea in 2000.

Kyu-Baik Hwang, painter and printmaker, was born in Busan, South Korea in January 1932. Between 1950 and 1954, he served in the military during the Korean War, and after his service obligation he began to paint, becoming a member of the artist group Shin Jo Kyung and Shin Sang from 1954 to 1967. By 1968 he was a well-established painter but he decided to seek new challenges in Europe.

In Paris, he studied art history at the Ecole du Louvre and printmaking at the celebrated Atelier 17. Working with founder Stanley William Hayter, among the most innovative and influential printmakers of the 20th century, Hwang mastered various intaglio techniques. By the time he moved to New York City in 1970, where he was to reside for thirty years, Hwang was primarily working in color mezzotint, a print medium to which he devoted himself exclusively.