The modernization of literati painting
Kim, Hyunkyung’s recent work, plum blossom, one of the four plants of the Four Gentlemen, begins to appear, along with bamboo. The plum blossom, in common with bamboo, is reinterpreted by modern formative methods. As plum blossom itself has curved lines rather than straight ones, and bent forms, however, the appropriate formativeness for its feature is being sought.
Since the image of the blossom is the center of picture, curved images rather than straight lines become the heart of the picture. The shape of it is, however, still obfuscated. Therefore, we can see she is trying to grope for a new formative language and an interpretation of space, not to seek for the forms of plum blossom.
Geometric image is declining in a series of works featuring plum blossom. As formative interpretation is given to the fetal shape instead, the picture is changed to a soft and gentle image focusing on curves. As abstract washes in light ink are faintly arranged together with plum blossom, slender straight lines, which appear to be plum branches with blossom, mingle partly.
And in some way, the image of dark ink that seem to be plum stump, dominates the picture. Here the image of plum stump expressed with dark ink holds a dominant position in the picture composed of variations in tonality.
Thus, she opens our eyes to possibilities of her own independent world of formativeness through the modernized interpretation of plum blossom by the medium of the harmony produced by tonality of ink and wash.
It can be said in that, in her work of the stump of plum tree depicted with dark ink, she not only borrows and reinterprets the material of the Four Gentlemen simply in modernized image, but also presents a way of contemporary literati painting in the true sense.
It cannot not be ignored that her work serves as an opportunity to provide a new formativeness, though the condition has not been fully ripe. Establishing techniques and sophistication are the key. This matter can be resolved fully with the amount of work increased.
Plum blossom is quite different from bamboo in terms of form and feature. So, she clearly realizes a fact that a different formative approach from the one for bamboo, is required. The formative changes can be much more diverse as the image of plum blossom consists of curves, not straight lines.
We can actually witness much softer and freer flow in the composition of picture or in its formative interpretation in her works of plum blossom. In addition, if more careful analysis and reinterpretation on a stump of plum tree are made,
I think, her own sense of formality can be produced. It can be recognized as her personal achievement in common challenge of the modernization of literati painting. ▲Shin Hang Seop, Kunstkritiker/신항섭 미술평론가.
△권동철=5월22일 2021, 이코노믹리뷰.