Kyubaik Hwang

Kyubaik Hwang (b. 1932) reinvented mezzotint printmaking with a modern sensibility, building a career across Paris and New York that placed his work in major museum collections worldwide, including MoMA, the V&A, and the Uffizi. He studied at the École du Louvre and in Atelier 17 under S.W. Hayter. His mezzotints render everyday objects and creatures in meticulous detail but place them in illogical, dreamlike contexts, evoking comparisons to René Magritte while conveying a gentler, more serene inner world; after returning permanently to Korea in the 2000s he turned to painting, drawing on techniques learned from Italian fresco.