Curator / Researcher
Special Exhibition
Poetic Abstraction
20.12.2023-31.3.2024
Curated by Jisu Yoon
Kim WhanKi
Yoo Youngkuk
Ko Whahum
TCHINE Yuyeung
Oh Sookhwan
Lee Cheoljoo
Lee in
Kang Un
Artist
Curatorial Statement
Jisu Yoon, Curator
Jeonnam Museum of Art has run a ‘Donated Artworks Gallery’ so that invaluable assets obtained through donations can be returned to the local community. Its donatedworks are 139 pieces in total, accounting for approximately 29% of the museum’sentire collection. More than 100 works by local artists were donated to the museum, providing insight into the flow of Namdo art and enabling the formation of a superb collection in terms of scale and quality. The museum has showcased donated works through various themed exhibitionsfor the last three years, aiming to explore both their artistic and social significance through in-depth study.
This exhibition is designed to show the diverse evolution of Korean abstract painting through donated works. The museum curated this exhibition to highlight artists who expressed themselves through unconventional compositions of color and form, inviting visitors to appreciate their works with their hearts. The exhibition consists of three subthemes: ‘Korean abstraction-the world of thought,’ ‘Lyrical abstraction-the vitality of nature,’ and ‘Ideational abstraction-landscape of color’ to allow viewers to explore unique Korean abstract art.
This art show will serve as an opportunity for viewers to appreciate highly creative works by Kim Hwanki and Yoo Youngkuk, trailblazers in the field of Korean abstract art in the section ‘Korean abstraction-the world of thought’; works by Ko Hwa-Hum, Oh Sook Hwan, and Lee Cheol Joo who have communicated with nature and represented their inner worlds in abstract painting in the section ‘Lyrical abstraction-the vitality of nature’; and works by Kang Un, Lee In, and TCHINE Yuyeung who have captured their personal experiences and internal healing processes in colors in the section ‘Ideational abstraction-landscape of color.’
We at the museum would once again like to express our gratitude to the artists and donors who willingly donated their precious works. We hope that this exhibition will illuminate the inherent value and significance of donated items as valuable publicassets, fostering a deeper activation of the art donation culture.
Main Works
Kim Hwan Ki
Untitled
1970 Oil on Canvas, 121.5x86.5cm
Kim Whanki (1913-1974), a trailblazer in Korean abstract art, developed his distinctive artistic style by blending Korean lyricism with Western modernism. He encapsulated Korean tradition and emotions couched in connotative artistic idioms, employing traditional subjects like mountains, the moon, jars, and plum blossoms as motifs in his work. Kim’s art is largely divided into three periods: the Tokyo-Seoul period (1933-1956), the Paris-Seoul period (1956-1962), and the New York period (1963-1974). His work Untitled(1970) housed in Jeonnam Museum of Art was from the New York period when he was most active. During the New York period, Kim depicted natural motifs concisely, paring them down to formative elements such as dots, lines, and planes. He also kept experimenting with diverse images using highly saturated colors. This artwork, with its colors and lines spreading as clearly and transparently as in an ink-and-wash painting, focuses on a cross-shaped scene. It invites the viewer into a meditative space, transcending mere formative elements.
Yoo Young Kuk
Mountain
1968 Oil on Canvas, 130x130.5cm
Yoo Youngkuk (1916-2002), a first-generation Korean abstract artist assumed a key role in the beginning and development of Korean abstract painting. His paintings are characterized by a figuration of Korea’s beautiful nature such as mountains and the sea with simple lines and planes and intense colors. In his works, basic formative elements such as lines, planes, and colors are in opposition or keep a balance, emitting intense energy.
Mountain (1968) included in the collection of the museum is a work painted when his formative experiments came to a climax, starting from his first solo show in 1964. During this period, Yoo developed his unique style based on a composition of geometric abstraction he had attempted in his early years while working on images of mountains with distinctly divided color fields. In this piece, we can immerse ourselves in his mature abstract art, which reached fruition through the harmonious interplay of vivid colors and well-defined plane divisions.
Ko Hwa Hum
White Beach
1986 Oil on Canvas, 116.8x80.3cm,
Ko Hwa Hum (1923-1999) was an artist who experimented extensively with various forms, including figurative, semi-abstract, and abstract images and contributed to extending the scope of abstract art in the Jeonnam region by representing the world of indigenous nostalgia and lyricism. Starting from naturalism which emphasized the harmony of colors and natural images, his work gradually went through sensuous and experimental interpretations of form and then eventually reached lyrical abstraction without specific images. Ko exhibited figurative paintings in the 1940s and 1950s, semi-abstract works in the 1960s, and entered a fully abstract period after 1967.
White Beach housed in the museum is from the 1980s—a series he unveiled during his abstract period. This title can be interpreted as ‘white hill,’ but it is also a hill of longing and a utopian world illustrated by the artist. The waves, expressed subtly by applying several thin layers of paint, and the shadows reflected by the waves bring about a lyrical atmosphere.
Kang Un
A Walk through the Mind
2020 Oil on canvas, 227.3x181.8cm
Kang Un (1966~) takes his subject matter from nature and depicts the sky, clouds, and the sea. The natural elements he represents are seen as a figuration of their energy and purity. Nature is the spiritual and aesthetic foundation of his work, and is expressed as abstraction through his meditation. A Walk through the Mind is his serialized work in which he calmly suppresses his inner sadness after losing his wife.
He uses blue to convey his personal experiences and hidden emotions through his paintings. He crafts ascetic artworks with the hope of healing, employing repetitive cycles of painting, scratching, and erasure to encapsulate emotions like love for his wife and the experience of separation. The rich textures, unveiled through vibrant colors and repetitive actions, convey messages about life and memories that remain hidden beneath the surface. These evoke a poetic sensibility in the viewer.
Behind the Scenes
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