Synecdoche

Byron Kim

1 of 2

Object Label

Since the early 1990s, Byron Kim has completed hundreds of monochromatic paintings based on the skin colors he observes during sessions with individual sitters. Displayed in a grid, each arrangement functions as both a composite abstraction and a group portrait.

A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part of something refers to its whole. Through this allusion in the title, Kim questions the racialized ways in which skin and pigment tend to stand in for the entirety of a person’s perceived identity.

Caption

Byron Kim (American, born 1961). Synecdoche, 1991–1992. Oil on wood, each panel: 10 × 8 in. (25.4 × 20.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg, 2016.30.2a-l. © artist or artist's estate. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Gallery

Not on view

Artist

Byron Kim

Title

Synecdoche

Date

1991–1992

Medium

Oil on wood

Classification

Painting

Dimensions

each panel: 10 × 8 in. (25.4 × 20.3 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg

Accession Number

2016.30.2a-l

Rights

© artist or artist's estate

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