Is it wrong for artists to be funny?
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An installation by 38-year-old Seoul artist Hyungkoo Lee at the recent Venice Biennale gave Guardian blogger Shane Danielsen pause for thought: In this current climate, is it morally wrong for artists to be anything other than deadly serious? While art critics might praise Lee's skeletons of beloved cartoon characters as a "subversive" Eastern appropriation of Western iconography, Danielsen thinks it might be simpler than that: "Perhaps he just found them funny". Read more.
Image: Lepus Animatus, Hyungkoo Lee. Photograph: © Hyungkoo LeeAn installation by 38-year-old Seoul artist Hyungkoo Lee at the recent Venice Biennale gave Guardian blogger Shane Danielsen pause for thought: In this current climate, is it morally wrong for artists to be anything other than deadly serious? While art critics might praise Lee's skeletons of beloved cartoon characters as a "subversive" Eastern appropriation of Western iconography, Danielsen thinks it might be simpler than that: "Perhaps he just found them funny". Read more.
Image: Lepus Animatus, Hyungkoo Lee. Photograph: © Hyungkoo Lee