The Very Origin’s of SHAY KUN's Artistic Genius.

Shay Kun’s Tear Drop Series has taken the Art world by storm. Is it photographic or Abstract? It’s so fascinating to compare the photo with the Painting. His most recent Jokes series is also available at the Aspen Art Gallery.

Tomer Ganihar from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz caught up with Shay Kun for a fascinating interview. 

and more recently Carolina Real interviewed Shay for “Lift Off” @ https://www.art-summit.com/shaykun/

“As an artist, who began painting at the age of just three years old, and with both parents as commercial artists, I often wondered if becoming an artist was a part of his DNA.”

Shay Kun

His family heritage

His parents, who are also Artists, are survivors of the Holocaust. This traumatic episode is an important part of the family history. "My parents are definitely my heroes. They endured hardships in their lives that are beyond imagining, and they managed to overcome them and come out the other side as artists whose art enriches other people’s lives."

Shay explains how his parent's Art impacted his own work: “Actually, it’s their art that seeps into my art. My parents were painters. My father’s work looks at the breakdown of the landscape, at its collapse. It’s very dark and morbid. And my mother’s work concentrates more on the more festive side of nature, on things that are blooming, on the joy of this. ". He says that he tries to "copy" their work, which are "very attractive, but which also raises many questions".

"Everything is Artificial"

It's striking to see how Shay Kun is able to mix abstraction and a very realistic style, almost photographic.

“I don’t paint from real life. Everything I do is artificial. Most of my paintings are a ‘pastiche’ − a recycled work of landscapes.” Says Shay Kun. 

Shay Kun's enjoys painting things that were already painted before, and also takes his inspiration in the digital world "I’m not one of those painters who sits in Central Park, in awe at what’s around them. I like things that have been chewed over and over again, and copied hundreds of times. Only then do I want to paint them myself. Some of my images even come from 3-D computer games − from war games, urban warfare"
 

His Obsession for Technique

“Because it’s my instrument. It’s important to be meticulous and prepared. For years, when I was a kid and asked my dad to tell me about his past, he only talked about the technical things at Auschwitz: the layout of the barracks, the width of the paths, the outlines of the barbed-wire fences. I really wanted – I begged him, actually – to tell me stories with a more human touch, about his feelings, but he insisted on talking only about the objective aspects of the camp − the shape and structure, the length and width.”

Despite this methodical approach, he admits that Art is a place of magic. "99 percent of the time the trick doesn’t work, but you keep trying until that rare moment when the magic takes over. "

Visit Shay Kun's currently full available collection for more Artwork!