If you go
Byron Kim’s ‘Synecdoche’
Where: National Gallery of Art East Building, Fourth Street and Constitution Avenue NW
When: On view indefinitely
Info: Free; 202-737-4215; nga.gov
If you don’t know the circumstances under which Byron Kim created his masterwork-in-progress “Synecdoche,” you might reasonably mistake it for a specimen of abstract art. But, in fact, it has a grounding in representational art that’s almost literally as plain as the nose on your face.
In 1991, Kim began making this series of 8-by-10-inch portrait panels, whereupon he re-creates in a mix of oil paint and wax the skin tone of a model who has posed for him. The artist Lorna Simpson was among the sitters. So was Kim’s then-1-year-old son.
Now comprising more than 425 individual panels, “Synecdoche” was recently acquired by the National Gallery of Art and installed in the East Building’s modern and contemporary art galleries. Kim will continue to expand the piece, which can be presented in a grid of any size, but with the panels sequenced alphabetically by each sitter’s first name.
