HYLAND
eclectic selection: the furniture designer Pierre Chareau
is represented, as is Kandinsky, Lichtenstein (a painter
who incorporates texts, or rather, exclamations), Lucien
Freud, Man Ray and Max Ernst.
One of the beauties of this exhibition is that it provokes
in the viewer a wealth of associations. Each of us, or,
sadly, perhaps, only some of us, these days, possess a
library, and what is in it and what is not is telling. Kang's
project could proceed ad infinitum, if he chose only to
paint portraits of other people's libraries. What no painting
or photograph of a library can reveal, however, is which
books have been read and which ones have not.
I think of Walter Benjamin's famous essay, "Unpacking
My Library," the lead essay in the book Illuminations,
which I carried around for years, unread. As I write this
review, I have a downloaded copy of the essay on my
table and I will read it once these words are finished.
