One who Understands Painting, Object, and Event

 

 Kim Noam

 

Flow and Trend

Painting sits on the throne of the visual arts, but that wasn't always the case. In the 20th century, around World War I and World War II, the emergence of abstract art and Dada led to groundbreaking changes in artistic concepts and expressions, and the concepts and forms of painting also underwent more diverse and complex changes. Throughout the 21st century, rapid changes in the world brought about by the global information society and digital culture have fundamentally changed the role and meaning of painting. In the massive trend of dereligionization or secularization of today's society, painting is understood as an important art form that reflects on and experiences human existential meaning. Painting digs into the depth of matters of human identity and existence, individual's psychology and mind, going further internally to the spiritual realm. Painting is considered the most important form of expression and understanding of objects and events.

Regardless of the subject, material, or style, 'physical materiality' is what painters are familiar with and internalize, while it is also something that is most sensitively dealt with. In our art community, the word ‘physical materiality’ is treated very metaphysically. But in fact, it is connected to everything related to the artist’s physical activities, and can be thought of as a state in which one identifies and feels the totality of existence with one’s whole body. It refers to an integrated sense that is both microscopic and macroscopic, with the paint, canvas, brush, body muscles, nerves, and senses operating as one whole unit. We feel the whole being through the sense of touch at our fingertips, through the subtle vision of our eyes, and through the delicate yet rich sense of smell. One can think of a state of immersion where sensibility and thought are intertwined, like a kind of meditation. Through the paintings of this special exhibition of awardees of Chongkundang Yesuljisang, we come into contact with a different path and a different contemporary art world. The exhibition reveals the tendency of contemporary painting to change in an unfathomably complex way.

What remains in painting once the expressiveness is removed? Artists who rebel against established painting and seek new directions consistently claim that they are trying to directly approach the essence of painting or art. However, there are very few artists in the history of art thought to have attempted to escape from the essence. The true purpose of an artist is to advance toward the essence of art. But what is the essence that each artist claims? A consensus on a common universal essence can never be reached. Therefore, painting is an activity that seeks to temporarily reveal the essence of something that can never be reached. 

Park Siwol equates others with her mother and uses that as leverage to advance her thoughts and build a world of painting. Oh Sekyung expresses the psychological state and meaning created when faced with surreal anxiety, fear, or an event that cannot be prepared for, in his own style. Choi Soojung traces the microscopic changes and delicate processes of visual experience and the relationship between reality and images. Through the work of these invited artists, we experience how macro and micro discourses are mixed in various ways and differentiated into various branches in the field of art.

Painting is a form that can capture both reality and surreality for an individual. It is no longer a description or an explanation. Painting has gone too far from the problems and traditional themes and materials pursued by past artists. However, the achievements and experiences of senior established artists still present current painters with more accurate perceptions, attitudes, and ways of existence toward the changing world and culture. The artists invited to this special exhibition provide more reliable narratives about the nature and meaning of contemporary painting. The starting point of contemporary art is the existence of a unique individual called 'I'. It is natural for the spectator to attach empathy and understanding. The audience always fills in the space left by the artist through their appreciation and understanding. The waves of images repeat like the ebb and flow of the tide. However, the waves of images are actually the form in which the sea of images is expressed. Immersed in the artists' individual senses and world, we perceive a more profound level of universal reality.