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Lot Essay
Nam Kwan is one of the pioneer of Korean modern art along with his contemporary artist, Rhee Seundja and Kim Whan-Ki. After the independence of Korea, Nam returned from Japan, but soon witnessing the tragedy of the Korean War (1950-53) and realising the huge difference between the Western abstract art and local art. In 1954, Nam departed to Paris to explore his own visual language.
Through extensive experiments with various materials and techniques, by the early 1960s, Nam began to develop his signature style and motif: unique shapes evoking letters, historical remains, stones, crown from the Silla Dynasty, and Korean traditional mask. As he recalls, 'I am employing old themes from my motherland-ancient remains, masks, ancient plant pattern'. Nam preferred to carefully devise letter shapes and make them constructive and figurative. In Composition Calligraphique (2) (Lot 491) created in 1968 right after his return from Paris, the unidentifiable yet balanced pictograph formed by painting and collage represents human's profound pursuit of harmony between chaos and order, memory and unconsciousness, and the organic and inorganic.
Through extensive experiments with various materials and techniques, by the early 1960s, Nam began to develop his signature style and motif: unique shapes evoking letters, historical remains, stones, crown from the Silla Dynasty, and Korean traditional mask. As he recalls, 'I am employing old themes from my motherland-ancient remains, masks, ancient plant pattern'. Nam preferred to carefully devise letter shapes and make them constructive and figurative. In Composition Calligraphique (2) (Lot 491) created in 1968 right after his return from Paris, the unidentifiable yet balanced pictograph formed by painting and collage represents human's profound pursuit of harmony between chaos and order, memory and unconsciousness, and the organic and inorganic.