Draft Kim Hwan-gi

Title	Whanki Kim: The Artist who harmonized Korean tradition and modernity

1차 원고

Paintings that are both Korean and Modern

Whanki Kim (‘Soohwa’, 1913∼1974) is a modernist artist representative of the 20th century Korean art. He was also a pioneer of abstract art and combined traditional Korean aesthetic with Western modernism. Furthermore, his paintings converged oriental intuition with occidental logic and displayed both distinctly Korean characteristics and modernity.

Whanki Kim study in Japan from 1933 to 1937. During this period, he founded an avant-garde art research center in 1934 and joined an abstract art movement. He also submitted works to inaugural show of the Free Painters Exhibition and held his first solo exhibition at the Agami Gallery. From 1946 to 1949, he served as a professor at the Seoul National University of Fine Arts. There, he formed a neorealist school and launched a new modernist movement.

In 1965, the artist attended the Sao Paulo Biennale in Brazil. There, he was inspired by American abstract expressionist works that had become the mainstream. After the Biennale, he flew to the United States with the desire to concentrate on painting. He settled and worked in New York until he died.

From Abstract Art to Korean Sentiments

Whanki Kim’s works can be divided into three periods: first, the period he studies in Japan (from early 1930s to early 1940s); second, the period between the Korean liberation and his departure to the United States (1945-1963); and third, the years he worked in New York (1964-1974).

During the first period, the new abstract art introduced in Japan made a deep impression on Kim who was a young fine arts student. This is reflected in his Hibiki (1937) and Rondo (1938) that display futuristic elements and constructivist colours.

In the second period which expands from Korean liberation in 1945 to his departure to New York. The works Moonlight and Sanwol are the most representative works of this period. He frequently use the moon, mountains, clouds, crane, and naked trees as motifs to express Korean aesthetic and poetic sentiments. During the three years of his stay in Paris, he began to simplify these motifs. Simple lines and shapes came to symbolize mountains, trees, and the moon. For instance, rounds shapes that represent the moon and traditional Korean jars filled his canvas.

The third period expands from his settling in New York to his death. There was a dramatic break from the previous years. Whanki Kim covered the whole canvas with dots. Instead of using Matière implemented by the construction of paint layers, he came to prefer translucent texture similar to ink-and-wash paintings. The representative work of this period is Where and What Form Are We to Meet Again?

Where and What Form Are We to Meet Again?

With subtle alterations of colors, light and shade, and the use of splashed-ink effect, Whanki Kim created an oriental and mysterious cosmic space in his paintings. In Where and What Form Are We to Meet Again?, small dots of dark blue repeat endlessly in the entire canvas. Each dot is painted over several times, blurred and blotted in the process. The title of the work originates from Kwang-sup Kim’s poem entitled “In the Night”:

Of so many stars,
A star looks down on me.
Of so many people,
I look at the star.
As the night grows deeper,
The star fades into brightness.
You, one so kind, and
I, one so tender,
Where and in what form
Are we to meet again?