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Lot Essay
Kim Whan-Ki began his artistic experiments with varied Korean motifs, especially summoning the significance of the stark splendor of baekja, Joseon Dynasty ceramics, finding limitless inspiration in their austere and regal beauty. As described in his poetic notation, "round sky, round jar/blue sky, white jar/ they are surely one pair," nature and tradition were the same thing to him. His way of depicting nature was to take excerpts from the patterns or scenes found in cloud or crane paintings inlaid in celadon or folding screens and re-mold them as abstracted forms in his own art.
In 1956, Kim departed for Paris with the intention of gaining direct exposure to Western art. He stayed there for three years, a period which saw the advent of a newly flourishing artistic ingenuity. His affection for indigenous motifs ironically grew stronger after arriving in Paris. In this period, Kim continued to explore in depth varied typical Korean motifs and landscapes and eventually schematizing them with simplified outlines and vibrant colour-fields. In the realm of Diaspora where subjectivity and the experience of being cultural "other" underlies many interaction, Kim devoted himself to the very difficult question of how to accommodate or embrace mainstream culture, while still adhering to his own subjectivity. In this life-long journey of artistic and personal development, Kim consistently set his identity in Korean traditional culture and natural landscapes.
Kim's artistic achievements are further elucidated, when compared with those of Zao Wou-Ki. These key figures of modern Asian art shared a genuine native consciousness and parallel personal trajectory. Starting from their artistic practices influenced by European modern art, they both reached ultimate level of originality with a unique style of pure abstraction that still contains traces of their mother lands. Sharing similar aesthetic poetry as Zao, Kim emphasized harmony in colour and pattern, the flowing charm of Eastern ink paintings. Painting a nature of his own, Kim's works eliminated conventional representation fully after his move to America in 1963, working instead in large colour grids reminiscent of the logical aesthetics of Piet Mondrian.
Untitled-28-I-68 I and Untitled-7-II- 68 III (Lot 406), featured here were produced in Kim's New York period (1963-1974). Discarding his secure life as a professor in Korea, Kim permanently left his motherland and settled in New York, in order to break free of his familiar environment and to continue his avant-garde experiments. During this period, he explored a variety of materials and techniques, including gouache, sand mixed with oil paint, oil on newspaper, collage, and papiermache. Untitled-28-I-68 I and Untitled-7-II-68 III are the result of these artistic experiments and one of best examples using oil on newspaper.
Through his constant effort to deconstruct and simplify forms during the late 1960s, the artist's own approach to so-called 'pointillism' began to appear in his works in the 1970s. At first glance, we can easily mistake them with Western geometric abstraction. Close inspection reveals, however, that the origin of all lines and dots is that of the common shapes of mountains, trees, or little islands which can be found throughout the Korean landscape. It is crucial to understand that his lyrical abstraction, drawn from nature, aims to return to nature. Kim has summarized this journey: "art is not an aesthetic, philosophical, or literary theory. It just exists like sky, mountain, and stone." Kim took his artistic origin from Korean landscape and through his long journey through Western abstraction, returned to it again with the profound and unique language of Korean modernism.
In 1956, Kim departed for Paris with the intention of gaining direct exposure to Western art. He stayed there for three years, a period which saw the advent of a newly flourishing artistic ingenuity. His affection for indigenous motifs ironically grew stronger after arriving in Paris. In this period, Kim continued to explore in depth varied typical Korean motifs and landscapes and eventually schematizing them with simplified outlines and vibrant colour-fields. In the realm of Diaspora where subjectivity and the experience of being cultural "other" underlies many interaction, Kim devoted himself to the very difficult question of how to accommodate or embrace mainstream culture, while still adhering to his own subjectivity. In this life-long journey of artistic and personal development, Kim consistently set his identity in Korean traditional culture and natural landscapes.
Kim's artistic achievements are further elucidated, when compared with those of Zao Wou-Ki. These key figures of modern Asian art shared a genuine native consciousness and parallel personal trajectory. Starting from their artistic practices influenced by European modern art, they both reached ultimate level of originality with a unique style of pure abstraction that still contains traces of their mother lands. Sharing similar aesthetic poetry as Zao, Kim emphasized harmony in colour and pattern, the flowing charm of Eastern ink paintings. Painting a nature of his own, Kim's works eliminated conventional representation fully after his move to America in 1963, working instead in large colour grids reminiscent of the logical aesthetics of Piet Mondrian.
Untitled-28-I-68 I and Untitled-7-II- 68 III (Lot 406), featured here were produced in Kim's New York period (1963-1974). Discarding his secure life as a professor in Korea, Kim permanently left his motherland and settled in New York, in order to break free of his familiar environment and to continue his avant-garde experiments. During this period, he explored a variety of materials and techniques, including gouache, sand mixed with oil paint, oil on newspaper, collage, and papiermache. Untitled-28-I-68 I and Untitled-7-II-68 III are the result of these artistic experiments and one of best examples using oil on newspaper.
Through his constant effort to deconstruct and simplify forms during the late 1960s, the artist's own approach to so-called 'pointillism' began to appear in his works in the 1970s. At first glance, we can easily mistake them with Western geometric abstraction. Close inspection reveals, however, that the origin of all lines and dots is that of the common shapes of mountains, trees, or little islands which can be found throughout the Korean landscape. It is crucial to understand that his lyrical abstraction, drawn from nature, aims to return to nature. Kim has summarized this journey: "art is not an aesthetic, philosophical, or literary theory. It just exists like sky, mountain, and stone." Kim took his artistic origin from Korean landscape and through his long journey through Western abstraction, returned to it again with the profound and unique language of Korean modernism.