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Paintings of Kim Ho-Deuk
While the most traditional norm for reading western painting would have been a law of linear perspective and an interpretation of iconography, the most peculiar aspect understanding eastern painting should have been to find the meaning from a principle of intuition and the spirit of artist. As each art history has had the different cultural backgrounds and ideas from the beginning and its historical development, it is still not simple to see the very basic nature of the internal aspect that has inherited, even we understand that these days there is a vast melting pot of various philosophical ideas and different cultures. The ink paintings Kim creates only with base material, brush and water ink has kept the distance from both sides, the western style of meticulous observation and the East Asian concept of grasping emotion and atmosphere of man and nature. The abstract images created with bold strokes at once, overlapping with countless dots have always been responding the given space, thus, starting with the flat painting, it concludes with the complete space.
Even a single line, a mono color and a single plane is enough to be a painting for Kim whose visualization would be actualized going through the process of each scene of valley, waterfall, people and landscape which is passing through the inner concept and filtering through the senses. When each element, which already has a sufficient figure in itself, as a being of painting and nature, corresponds to the metaphysical questions such as emotion, spirituality and purity, those shapes are transfigured; the interpretation and the expression of theme has changed the structure of the form which is supporting the painting; finally, between the strains, the very sharp way of how senses are expressed and its understatement, the image would be seemed as an illusion, which is rather instant, abstract and very vague, beyond multiple layered time. In the image created by him, there is a similarity as in the appearance of abstract painting, at times that looks quite decorative, an intense coexistence between the arbitrariness and the autonomy, and in the mean time the artist insists the idea and experiments about painting against the idea of western concept of abstract paintings. His *Paintings of Kim Ho-Deuk
While the most traditional norm for reading western painting would have been a law of linear perspective and an interpretation of iconography, the most peculiar aspect understanding eastern painting should have been to find the meaning from a principle of intuition and the spirit of artist. As each art history has had the different cultural backgrounds and ideas from the beginning and its historical development, it is still not simple to see the very basic nature of the internal aspect that has inherited, even we understand that these days there is a vast melting pot of various philosophical ideas and different cultures. The ink paintings Kim creates only with base material, brush and water ink has kept the distance from both sides, the western style of meticulous observation and the East Asian concept of grasping emotion and atmosphere of man and nature. The abstract images created with bold strokes at once, overlapping with countless dots have always been responding the given space, thus, starting with the flat painting, it concludes with the complete space.
Even a single line, a mono color and a single plane is enough to be a painting for Kim whose visualization would be actualized going through the process of each scene of valley, waterfall, people and landscape which is passing through the inner concept and filtering through the senses. When each element, which already has a sufficient figure in itself, as a being of painting and nature, corresponds to the metaphysical questions such as emotion, spirituality and purity, those shapes are transfigured; the interpretation and the expression of theme has changed the structure of the form which is supporting the painting; finally, between the strains, the very sharp way of how senses are expressed and its understatement, the image would be seemed as an illusion, which is rather instant, abstract and very vague, beyond multiple layered time. In the image created by him, there is a similarity as in the appearance of abstract painting, at times that looks quite decorative, an intense coexistence between the arbitrariness and the autonomy, and in the mean time the artist insists the idea and experiments about painting against the idea of western concept of abstract paintings. His art-will and the strategy of art can be interpreted that while it takes the form of monochrome painting in abstract painting, within the contents, it conveys the soul and the structure of the East. The spiritual resonance of the artist can easily be recognized through the images that are created by means of composing a stroke, a space made of leaning strokes against each other, and the overlapping plane surfaces making good use of Sumuk techniques such as Bal-muk (technique for how to control the density of ink and measure the amount of water), Pah-muk (literally it means break the ink, before ink dries adds some brush strokes to give a variations), Seon-yeom(before the painting, spraying water on the paper and then have a quick stroke, before it dries). The image manufactured by self-controlled strokes, overlapped plane surfaces creates formation, harmony and collision of universe so that it can be united, spilt in, occasionally holding hands, giving occasional tension, rhythm of life.
Kim's recent work on display at Leeahn Gallery is showing compact, pithy, and laconic statements than any other shows which he has presented. The works featuring in this show, embracing all the latest series of work, 'Gentle Moving', 'All of Sudden', and 'Space', are presenting much more powerful shape of a single strike, plane, and space. After his efforts to reinterpret and experiment of elements of plastic art, dots which were filled with each stroke, to the exclusion of any kind of decorative elements, and the possibility of new space made of a single plane could be established, From the points of dots and strokes, and space among them, between the strokes and their interrelationship to the given space, he moves a step ahead, thus, Kim's creative principle based on the idea of reduction by the application of the repetition of strokes, overlapping dots, and folding the spaces has changed into the way of filling out. In this exhibition, the installation work is firstly introduced, in which a painting covered with black acrylic paint is juxtaposed with a screen made of Korean traditional paper, which transmit light. Placing the two works in juxtaposition with each other in connection with sensual stimulus and material property draws out the contrasts between the minimum and the maximum, light and color, reduction and filling, tension and relaxing, spectator may experience the sensual correspondence and collision. The artist may have intended to consider his actions and reactions in art practice just as a part of his odyssey, or an unfinished journey.
Among those various ways to perceive the surroundings and million ways of expression of them, Kim's paintings resulted from his own peculiar style, expressive art-will exist as a set of combination in accumulated over time, space and conducts of art practice. As the paintings have always responded to the exhibiting place, it has the power that spectators feel as the artist did, becoming even more empowered than he did. While he is experimenting elements in plastic arts, his dots, strokes, and planes are becoming compact and cement, bringing out more tension on it, during the course of work the audiences may recognize the very essence of idea of art. He keeps trying to find the way of opening the door of the sensible in order to feel, interpret, and express the world, is continuing to experiment and seeking to answer for the quest to art never tiring, never finishing, therefore it shows the basic issues of art beyond interpretation.
HaeKyung Kim
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