Notes
Born in 1913, Kim Whanki marked his name as an unforgettable, formative figure in breaking conventions in his endeavor to experiment with abstract paintings in the 1930s during his studies in Japan. Under Japanese academicism, Kim delved into geometric abstraction of Cubism and Fauvism, experimenting with the solidity of colors; but such rigidity in composition and color soon changed after the Korean War ended. Kim liberated his Korean spirit away from Japanese training and profoundly extended his artistic capacity with his new autonomy.
In 1955, Kim departed for Paris with an ambition for direct exposure to Western art and lived there for three constructive years that later became the advent of his flourishing artistic ingenuity. Paris awakened Kim to rediscover his nation which soon became the fountain of his creation. Summoning the significance of the stark splendor of Joseon dynasty ceramics baekja, Kim constantly acquired inspiration from its austere and regal beauty, echoing the discipline of Confucian ideals of immaterialist philosophy. Cranes, moons and mountains rendered in Joseon dynasty baekja often appeared on Kim's canvas, uncovering his wisdom in realizing the value of his roots. Striving to find his misplaced tradition, Kim painted heartfelt motifs that narrated the trivial episodes, which accordingly symbolized the core soul of the Koreans. Woman with a jar in the Moonlight bares Kim's multiple muse; the creamy white ceramic, the banal life, the geometric symmetry and solid color appliance are coalesced in one sophisticated planar. Subsequent to this oeuvre, Kim resumed an eminent maturity that unfolds his erudite consciousness, stabilized within the monochromatic field of blue.
Akin to Zao Wouki, both of these key figures of Modern Asian art shared a genuine native-consciousness and parallel personal trajectory. They both, imparted in harmonizing the East and West, which consequently bestowed deeper insights of their identity. Sharing similar aesthetic poetry as Zao, Kim emphasized in harmony of the color and pattern, imbuing the flowing charm of Eastern ink paintings. Painting a nature of his own, Kim's oeuvres subtracted representation fully after his move to America in 1963. During late 1960s, Kim's images were simplified into large color grids that recited the logical aesthetics of Piet Mondrian. Adhering close to Mondrian's geometrical purism, Kim endeavored to probe the command that color manifested over an image. Perhaps, this experimental curiosity is what granted him the enlightenment of color as a visual theme. Thinning his oils into a softer wash, parallel to ink, Kim reinforced his eastern derivation to impress the subtle grace that stir a meditative opus. By early 1970s, Kim exercised the lyricism of images by composing miniature dots in colorful poetry. His enchanting regulation of the dots, ranged in size and indefinite structure, generated an expansion of the canvas with the visual vibration it carried.
The mysterious ambiance of the pulsating dots is settled into a tranquil tenor, together with Kim's poise in his aesthetics in 15-XII 72 No. 305 New York (Lot 524). Featured with softly intact patterns, this oeuvre is notably unique in exemplifying his peak propensity in his artistic achievement. Taming all wisdom and experience from his past, Kim abstracted all superfluous description and simplified the painting, demonstrating his intuitive grasp of nature in nonfigurative depiction. Owing to his conscientious practice of constantly evolving from his past works, this oeuvre enclose attributes from his 1950s work and late 1960s work. The clear-cut contour of the quotidian scenery is effectively relative under a blurred vision, as the uncomplicated shapes turn into pure geometry in Untitled No. 107. Associations of external reality are discarded into this painting but the colors he harnessed have turned significantly placid, analogous to the mellow solidity of Kim's self-assurance, furthermore, perhaps as a pictorial premonition of Kim approaching the climax of his artistic maturity.
Kim continued to dissolve form into refined plainness, yet preserving some aesthetics from the past. Perhaps, his devoted endeavor in fully grasping the infinite realm of color and space has amplified his intuition, sharpening his senses, granting him the ability to extract a landscape, innately rendering a pictorial abstraction that trace the nature's spirit.
Inclining deeper towards his roots in 15-XII 72 No. 305 New York, Kim enveloped his canvas with organic dots with one decisive color of blue. He gracefully precludes his oeuvre to appear flat in surface through the variation in tonality and washes. Kim's remarkable conduct in creating variable rhythm with infinite patterns is subdued in elegant control of his color, that neutralize its seemingly surplus embellishment of pattern into a simple unified form, an aesthetic penchant to Confucian principle of simplicity and ascetic life. Seemingly relaxed in composition, the dots are saturated in the rich concentration of the royal blue. Kim's conscious decision in exploring the opulence of blue is perhaps due to the immense significance it holds in Korean tradition. A color most intimate with earth and virtue, blue emanate hope, life, integrity and spirit. Exceptionally germane to his art and his life's purpose, Kim bathes his calligraphic dots in the consoling pool of blue, cultivating its pattern into a unified harmony. Regardless of its firmly organized configuration, his canvas blesses a sense of longevity and comfort through the waves that trace an unclear beginning and end of its travel.
However, Kim does not defy structure as a whole as he shrewdly frames the border of the canvas and weaves fields of linear patterns inside the rim. With this, he maneuvers the spectator's perception to be drawn into depth of the canvas, more willingly than to expand beyond it. The nebulous centre of his oeuvre allows the spectator's gaze to glide within the lines, perpetually increasing in transcendental experience as symmetrical alignment pulls the attention into an infinite whirlwind. Kim's enthralling prowess in moving lines with minimalist detail is attributable to color that resonate a muted illumination, stimulating a vision of a delicate movement of the patterns, moreover emitting a sense of refined vitality.
The spatial depth and meditative force radiates utter purism of Mark Rothko's paintings which he encountered while living in New York. Enthused by the metaphysical asset of color that Rothko sought in his paintings, Kim too, scrutinized the supremacy of color by diffusing his palette into a singular choice to experiment with the principle of immateriality. Reverting back the Joseon dynasty's Confucian belief, this act of eliminating color and abstracting external reality was cleansing of Kim's soul for his endeavor towards closer intimacy with nature. His light attentive brushstrokes apply a tactile verve, resonating Kim's rich emotion, and painstaking passion in memory of his homeland. Together with his spiritual quality of color, Kim's everlasting patterns transform into a symphonic experience of transcendental reality, moreover even enlarging visual contemplation and imaginative realm by emerging as a refreshing landscape of a limitless sky or sea.
