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Lot Essay
Kim studied calligraphy during his childhood and innate affection toward art naturally led him to major in painting during his university years. After graduating from an art college in Seoul, Kim continued his study in art in New York during the 1960s, and then settled in Paris in 1970. During this Paris period, Kim developed his signature style and motif: the representation of the water drop.
For the catalogue of his solo exhibition at the Tokyo Gallery in 1988, he further explained, 'I paint water drops because I want to dissolve everything inside them, and return to nothingness. Anger, anxiety, fear-I want them all to become emptiness'.
As Untitled (Lot 493) epitomizes, the droplets in Kim's works are explicitly tied to the Buddhist notions of water as ritual, spiritual protection, and purification as a metaphor for the evanescence of life. His water drops represent a material manifestation of
a monk-like devotion to enlightenment and thus brings the artist in harmony with himself and the world, as in a Buddhist monk's repeated bows and chants in a meditative ritual. In 2005, water drops remain as they are but background colour is changed from sand-like yellowish beige colour to deep black in Untitled (SH05013) (Lot 494), conveying an atmosphere of solemnity.
For the catalogue of his solo exhibition at the Tokyo Gallery in 1988, he further explained, 'I paint water drops because I want to dissolve everything inside them, and return to nothingness. Anger, anxiety, fear-I want them all to become emptiness'.
As Untitled (Lot 493) epitomizes, the droplets in Kim's works are explicitly tied to the Buddhist notions of water as ritual, spiritual protection, and purification as a metaphor for the evanescence of life. His water drops represent a material manifestation of
a monk-like devotion to enlightenment and thus brings the artist in harmony with himself and the world, as in a Buddhist monk's repeated bows and chants in a meditative ritual. In 2005, water drops remain as they are but background colour is changed from sand-like yellowish beige colour to deep black in Untitled (SH05013) (Lot 494), conveying an atmosphere of solemnity.