Due to COVID19, the exhibition will be held at Sindoh Cultural Space without any audience attended.
Sindoh Culture Space is hosting an exhibition of Korean abstract art until October 22nd. The exhibition features four master artists who are leading in the contemporary abstract art in Korea, including Kim Gui-line, Gwak In-sik, You Hee-young, and Chung Sang-hwa. Their works express Korean themes uniquely, and they show how various techniques and forms of Korean abstract art have evolved over the years. These include abstract attempts based on figurative art, monochrome, and exploration into the fundamental nature and materiality of art.
Strong primary color geometric abstraction, Kim Gui-line
▲ Kim Gui-line, Inside, Outside, 1987-1988, Oil on canvas, 240 x 160cm(Left),
Kim Gui-line, Inside, Outside, 1986, Oil on canvas, 194 x 130cm(Right)
Kim Gui-line studied art at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and École Nationale Supérieure des Décoratifs of France. Kim is currently living and working in Paris. His early paintings, from the 1960s when he was studying art in France, concentrated on geometrical abstraction using sharp and vivid primary colors. As years passed, Kim’s interest shifted toward transforming purely black and white, two dimensional paintings into objet d'art.
The series titled ”Inside, Outside” represents his attempt to show “the invisible or the inside and the visible or the outside to have us think and understand the interactions between the two domains, to express his ideas on the two concepts or domains that are opposite but inseparable.”
Abstract representation of the materialistic properties, Gwak In-sik
▲ Gwak In-sik, 82-BD, 1982, ink on paper on canvas, 92.5 x 162cm
Gwak In-sik is known for abstract paintings that highlight materialistic properties. He holds an important place in the history of Korean art for his role in introducing conceptual art in Korea. Throughout the 1950s, his interest remained mainly in surrealistic abstract art and his paintings featured human body parts such as eyes and hands which are most needed to draw and appreciate paintings. In the mid-1970s and beyond, he worked mainly on two-dimensional paintings where clear and transparent color images are expressed in certain fixed patterns that are simplified into small ovals on paper and these images expand and evolve in flexible and complicated combinations, thus exuding Oriental mystique.
A combination of intense color and restrained composition, You Hee-young
▲ You Hee-young, 2017 M-1, 2017, Oil on canvas, 120 x 120 cm
Color-field paintings of You Hee-young use vivid and bold colors and simplified designs. Since she moved to her new studio in Okcheon, Chungcheong-do in 1991, her color-field paintings have centered on expressing her thoughts on the life in nature and on revealing values that lie beneath the physical beauty of designs.
In her paintings, You maximizes the design features that she has constantly explored. As a result, her paintings not only represent the visualization of material properties but also take on a unique aura per se. Powerful colors and geometric elements are two key features of her paintings.
Sculptural artwork on canvas, Chung Sang-hwa
▲ Chung Sang-hwa, Untitled, 2018, Frottage on Korean Paper, 150 x 106cm(Left)
Chung Sang-hwa, Untitled, 12-5-13, 2012, Acrylic on Canvas, 259.1x193.9cm(Right)
Subsequently, he worked and lived in France for the next 15 years. Although he spent most of life in Japan and France, his strong sense of pride and identity as a Korean is deeply intertwined in his works and he is viewed as one of the influential artists in the history of Korean art.
Paints are applied in 5mm thickness on a canvas and then dried. Then, cracks are formed in a checkered pattern and some of the squares are randomly chosen and removed. The spaces from which the squares have been removed are filled with acrylic paints. This process is repeated over and over until the painting reaches the desired quality. From a distance, it looks like a flat-surface canvas, but when you take a close look, you will discover that the surface consists of countless layers, which makes it more like a sculpture.
Since 1999, Sindoh has been hosting various exhibitions in the Sindoh Cultural Space and has contributed to the cultural enhancement of its employees and local communities. Mr. Lee Cheol-woo, an Executive Director of the PR Team at Sindoh said, “I truly wish that this exhibition be a meaningful chance for employees to get to know Korean abstract arts"
