kim bokyung

In paintings, a planar configuration is shaped by exclusion of perspective and absence of sense of volume. Such a planar configuration is one of major features of color representation. In his essay on Modernism, Greenberg stated, ‘flatness is a unique and special characteristic of paintings. The flatness, which is a two- dimensional element, is painting’s distinctive condition that is never shared by other types of art. Accordingly, modernist paintings have to strive for nothing but the flatness itself.’ Greenberg also asserted that canvas is a limited medium for modernist paintings, so its shapes, flat screen and paint’s property must be treated as positive and dynamic. In this regard, we can consider a flat space as one of the characteristics of modernist paintings. The flat space comes from a change of illusory or visional space. This is because flatness is the most distinct and unique quality that painting artworks should possess. In consideration of such aspects of paintings, I could discover the quality of a planar configuration in Korea’s traditional folk paintings. Most of my works became implying the folk paintings’ expressive method and aesthetic. Unlike other Korea’s existing traditional paintings, the folk paintings can be often found in a free style pictorial form. It is because ordinary people freely made the folk paintings with no relation to their tradition or systematic education. Such a free style expressive mode of the folk paintings is well described through the planar configuration. As shown in my text paintings, I usually draw outlines of a form first and then, fill up the inside of the outlines with colors. Through the stylized pattern or the strong colors, you can discern the characteristics of Korea’s traditional folk paintings. In my works, forms or shapes are represented by highly saturated colors so as to be deliberately exaggerated or simplified. There are black borderlines that convey boldness and symbolic meaning. Moreover, as one of the ways of color representation, lines like organic curves and geometric lines express vitality. This usage of lines can be also regarded as one of the characteristics, which are found in the color representation of the folk paintings. The flat and simplified representation of colors was made through concrete plans of mine. This representation allows me to build my own creativity as making artworks. In Korea’s traditional folk paintings, it is important to express each facet of colors with use of bright and strong colors. Besides, the folk paintings use intense colors in flatness instead of using shade. This is an effort to avoid degrading color contrast. I also adopted the same type of coloration in my works.

 

It would not be an exaggeration to say that ‘pursuit of simplification’ is a compound expression to explain various changes and a wide range of developmental manners in the paintings of Postmodernism. In contemporary art, simplification is accounted as remarkable. As shown in Ancient Egyptian mural paintings and sculptures that are classified into primitive art, simplification is seemingly not only a realistic way of depicting material objects. It is also an evolutionary method to a new phase that is presented throughout contemporary art. If an object is described in simplicity, this simplicity signifies that the object is important and distinct. It can be said that simplicity denotes a degree of tension that an observer has toward a certain symptom. In other words, an observer creates a certain degree of tension through his or her personal experience and at this point, the degree of tension indicates nothing but simplicity. The simplicity begins from artists’ subjective reinterpretation of particular objects. Or, it starts from their simplification of that reinterpretation, while the artists enlarge or diminish the objects on canvas. Form is a component of representation of sculptures. It is an artist’s primary method for expression. Through variations of the form, an artist can maximize the content that he or she intends to represent. Like this, a simplified expression of color representation is also drove by a particular intention of an artist. In accordance with the intention of an artist, coloration is omitted from the unnecessary and insignificant part of things. Instead, colors of signification can be expressed more clearly. Simplified coloration is intrinsic, concise and pure in comparison with realistic coloration. Thus, it can be regarded that simple colors are the consequence of the process of delivering implied meanings. Simplicity appears as one of the expressive ways in Oriental paintings. When an artist captures an object through contemplation, the artist applies simplicity to paintings in order to conceive the object’s essence and furthermore, in order to identify him- or herself with the nature. No matter how the shape and color are simplified, the paintings of simplified expression can be perfect along with their maintenance of the object’s essence. The paintings can keep representing the object’s essence, because the artist tries to express the object in his or her cognitive world. In my artworks, I focus on representation of the mental world by condensing and limiting the reality with use of simplification of colors. The simplification using brief shapes is one of the ways to express the essential characteristics of an object. Therefore, for me, simplification can be regarded as an act of creation and at the same time, it is an effort and a will to pursue pureness. In sculptures, pureness is represented by the color representation, which makes use of both intensive formal depiction and concise list of primary colors. My painting can be compared with primitive art or children’s drawings of simplicity. This is due to the pre- logical viewpoint seeking the innocent joy, which is discovered all in primitive art, children’s drawings and my painting. At times, we can also find simplified expression in children’s drawings. However, in addition to the simplicity, there are simultaneously diversity and complexity too. Each different subject matter of my works evolves into a new work of art through imagination of mine. Eventually, it is recreated with different narratives.