You just have to take my word for it: Harold Ancart on the blues of his nighttime paintings

Korea Herald

08-04-2025

"Harold Ancart: Good Night" at Amorepacific Museum of Art marks Gagosian's second presentation in Seoul
Belgian artist Harold Ancart perceives things differently when night falls. Under moonlight, starlight or a streetlight, things start to take on a new appearance.
'I always wanted to do an exhibition around the nighttime. (At night), things start shape-shifting or metamorphose,' the artist said Thursday at the press opening of his 'Good Night' exhibition at APMA Cabinet, a project space at the Amorepacific Museum of Art. The museum itself is inside the headquarters of cosmetic giant Amorepacific in Seoul.
'I am not so much interested in subjects themselves. Painting is interesting when it goes beyond the subjects — when it transcends the subject,' he said.
The painting 'Field and Dawn' shows a tree under the dark blue sky, surrounded by several smaller trees against an indistinct horizon that glows orange and white. Many of his paintings of nocturnal scenes feature blue, which the artist said is his favorite color.
'When it is nighttime, you can use a lot of blue,' Ancart said, standing in front of his newly completed painting 'Grand View.' The work, a scene of a beach at night, renders the sea in deep, dark blue hues which splits along the horizon into a nebulous blue sky.
In 'Good Night,' the artist juxtaposes the pink blossoms of a tree that stands outside a house. Looking through the house's windows, we see fragments of landscape paintings that are assumed to be the artist's. Dark blue splotches of oil paint interrupt the surface of the scene, as though the artist were attempting to blur the boundary between figuration and abstraction.
'Maybe it is not the way the night would truly be blue in reality, but as a painter I don't really care about reality. If I wanted to paint the night red, I could very much paint the night red as long as I tell you 'it is the night.' You just have to take my word for it,' the artist said.
The exhibition opened Thursday and is the second shown by Gagosian, a leading international gallery, which does not have a permanent space in Seoul.
'When we say 'good night,' in general, it is an expression to wish good wishes before going to bed. But for the title of the exhibition, one can literally take the words 'good night' or in a more poetic way,' said Gagosian Seoul Director Lee Ji-young, who added the space was chosen to give viewers an intimate experience.
The exhibition runs through May 16 and is closed on Mondays.