| Suhwa, KIM Hwan-Ki(1913~1974)is the first generation artist who actively participates in the modern art formation period. He was a brilliant artist and has a superb humanity as a pioneer in the establishment of the Korean abstract art, having a strong influence on the development of the Korean modernism.He was born at Kija-do, Sinan County, Jeollanamdo from the very wealthy family. This period is coincided with the entrance of KO Heui Dong who was the first western artist graduated from the Tokyo Arts School, majoring in oil painting three years ago. Since he experienced the lyrical life in small island till his graduation from the elementary school, this ambience gave him abstract artistic works reflected by mountain, sea, sky, etc. Thus KIM Hwan Ki’s art world can be accessible through the times and circumstances of his activities, the observation of inherent Korean emotions forming his artistic characters and so on.Let me first introduce the time when he actively participated in the works in Japan. At that time the major flow of Japanese arts was the Academism which focuses on the reproduction of objects. Counter to this trend, at the same time, theAvant-garde movement in Japan like Fauvism, Cubism, and Abstractionism was on the rise by Japanese artists who had studied in European countries. From this stream of times, KIM Hwan Ki was immersed in the Avant-garde arts with his master and this Avant-garde style has been maintained through his whole life.The another point of view to appreciate his arts is the Korean sentiments, which can be acquired by the Korean inherent lyrical emotion, abstract composition in color and face, and paintings in dot, line, and face. Especially the sea and sky of hometown has formed the basis of blue paintings, and jars he collected as a prototype of beauty was a foundation of abstract beauty.His artistic world can be classified into four periods; fist period as Tokyo life(1933~1937), second one as Seoul life(1937~1956), third one as Paris and Post Seoul life(1956~1962), and fourth one as New York life(1963~1974). In particular,his single color abstraction works represents traditional Korean culture and nature, and missing people based on the basic picture component factors in the Movement of direct lines and round circles as in the whole framework of dots and colors. This abstraction works provides driving force to change Korean world of art in 1970 s.One of the main influences to KIM Hwan Ki was the jar, traditional Korean arts. He recollected that he learned the concept of beauty from the jar he collected. From 1944 to 1950, he purchased jars and woodcrafts every day, recalling that “he learned the beauty of formation, and satisfaction from the jars he loved. Maybe the jar is our main text book”.His artistic traits are in producing unified space by orderly rhythm through regular repetition in pattern. In 1930 s, he studied in Japan to scrutinize the western arts styles, and then he moved to Paris to study further and stayed at New York to learn modern arts, which maximizes his artistic competence. In consequence, he upgraded traditional Korean arts and its nature to the world level refined beauty and building up a new milestone to Korean abstract arts.KIM Hwan Ki has a profound effect on the Korean modern arts. First of all he established the clear direction in Korean abstract arts, showing that arts can be achieved by the continuous efforts to the beauty world, not by the craftsmanship. His challenge also shows the possibility of Korean modern arts to break from the localities to the world wide level. Especially, his abstraction world he attained stands out clearly from Korean art history. Praise his reason why he is not only leave the world a great works of art, but also because of his abstract world has apparently left a part in the history of modern art. |
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