Changwon National University Professor Jihoon Gu
I. Introduction
When examining the history of Western art, one finds that each significant paradigm shift involves a binary opposition: the opposition between line and color. It is a truth that repeats through Western art history. It is difficult to deny that the conflict between those who claim the superiority of the rational, fundamental and unchanging lines and drawings, and those who value the emotional, personal and changeable nature of color, was a major driving force in the development of Western art, whether intentional or otherwise. French art historian Henri Focillon comments that this opposition between line and color is now "the old antitheses, spirit-matter, matter-form,"1) and demands that we be free from this dichotomous perspective on the essence of art which “obsess men today exactly as much as the dualism of form and subject matter obsessed men centuries ago,”2) while not denying that “they still retain some slight trace of meaning or of usefulness.”3) It would be for this usefulness that art history and art criticism have so far been written based on the flow of this binary opposition as well as when, and why a remarkable paradigm shift occurs in this flow.
However, the interval between such paradigm shifts has increasingly been reduced in the timeline of art history, and the emergence of “abstract art” has given rise to the greatest artistic paradigm shift in the history of humanity and art. This was such a transformation that some would argue "the emergence of abstract art marks a watershed which divides twentieth century art from all the previous art in Western history."4) Moreover, there had been a movement that heralded the era of a great transformation before abstract art precipitated a tectonic change in art history. It took less than a century for the movement, which began with Eugene Delacroix during the Romantic era and passed through the “first modernist painter”5) Edouard Manet, to develop and produce the “first abstract painting”6) in the early twentieth century, and Maurice Denis was already saying in 1890 the following often-quoted words: "Remember that a painting – before being a battle horse, a nude woman, or an anecdote of some sort – is essentially a flat surface covered with colors, put together in a certain order", which clearly indicated the paradigm shift to modern painting. If we take a work by Hilma af Klint as the first abstract painting, then the time interval between the famous dictum of Maurice Denis and the first abstract painting is less than a quarter of a century. In short, the emergence of a new paradigm of abstraction and the materiality of canvas were closely related, and in turn, the synthesis of these two concepts led to a spectacular artistic differentiation.
The synthesis of materiality and abstraction in painting generated a change which had great influential power. It also had a significant impact on Korean art communities. Many modern and contemporary Western-style artists who had returned from studying in Japan, continued to deliberate and experiment on this issue, while Eastern-style and Korean artists who had been seeking breakthroughs also participated, bringing about a new direction in domestic “painting.” Lee Choun Hwan's art work, which demonstrates his steady and diverse attempts during and after this artistic transition period, is remarkable for its richness, and among them, the Light-Grain series attempts a bold change, both materially and abstractly.
II. Matiere, “Mulseong” Painting and the Great Attempt of Korean Abstraction
Mulseong (materialhood) painting, which puts a great emphasis on the materiality of the canvas or the surface, can be understood at three different levels. Depending on what is emphasized in the formation of Mulseong painting, they can be defined as either centered on materialhood, action, or their unity.7) Among them, the materialhood-centered methodology is a method of achieving “Unity without Self” through homogenization between materials or convergence of matter and surface, with the aim of expressing the self through the individuality of the matter itself as well as the union of the matter and the self.[8] In other words, it uses matter as a vehicle which leads to an abstract world or a nonmaterial experience. Greenberg emphasizes that the flatness is an essential and desirable quality in painting in the modernism era where the illusion has disappeared, and materiality is one of the ways in which the flatness could be best expressed. I personally believe that Greenberg himself would not have expected that the debate on the flatness of painting as he defined it would expand explosively to the Mulseong painting, monochrome painting, and to matiere as the essential attribute of painting rather than as a simple material of painting.9) Focillon’s assertion, "unless and until it actually exists in matter, form is little better than a vista of the mind, a mere speculation on a space that has been reduced to geometrical intelligibility,"10) puts more weight on the value and meaning of matter. Considering that Paul Klee also gained the strength to continue his work with the belief that “he was as close as one could be to the true basis of creation, the physical sphere of materials and the psychological sphere acting in unison,”11) we might take the Aristotelian approach that the property of material or matter is as important as the psychological sphere.
Despite the praise for materiality and matter by Western materialists and abstract artists since the twentieth century, I do not intend to deny the view that the return from form to matiere which precedes form, can be seen as a kind of a regression from the traditional Western perspective.12) Although, as previously mentioned, it is just “an opinion” from the “traditional Western” view. For Korean abstract artists and perhaps all those who learned and pursued Western painting in Korea, there exists an enduring artistic goal, like a mountain peak only visible through thick cloud and mist: It involves the expression, interpretation and challenge of “Korean" Western painting. Of course, as Park Sohyun points out, abstract art aims at the “Utopianism of the universal language,”13) which might make “adding the adjective “Korean” in front of it an antinomy and a logical oxymoron.”14) However, a universal language also inevitably produces multiple local languages, and these languages acquire their own legitimacy by the originality created through active differentiation.15) Therefore, the concept of “Korean” abstraction can also be “combined with the collective identity of a country or a nation.”16) If so, the first question would be: What are the principal characteristics of “Korean abstract art”?
Oh Kwangsoo gives a clear answer to this. For him, Korean abstract art is "fundamentally [...] abstraction as a form of intuitive and emotional articulation (as opposed to the product of logical and rational reason)."17) And the reason Korean abstraction is dominated by this sentimental tendency is that “Koreans essentially see [...] art as deriving from unity with nature.”18) The conception and attributes of Lee Choun Hwan's Light-Grain series do not deviate significantly from this idea. In his interview, Lee explained that the conception of this series was inspired by the holistic sense he experienced in Wando-gun in South Jeolla Province in 1989. Gugyedeung beach of Jeongdo-ri in his home island of Wando is a pebble beach, and Lee was inspired by the sound of the rolling pebbles in the waves and the moonlight reflected on the pebbles in creating the Light-Grain series. As Oh Kwangsoo puts it, it is the epitome of “emotional and intuitive” Korean abstraction. For Lee Choun Hwan and his Korean sentimentality, the synaesthetic and fantastical image of the rolling pebbles and reflected light at Gugyedeung beach in Wando inspired something a pebble beach in Nice France, could not have.
For Lee Choun Hwan’s abstraction and Korean abstraction, the almost only means of expressing the intensity of the artist’s emotion quantitatively is by the shade of matiere and the degree of paint piled up infinitely thinly on the surface layer. In order to build up layers of matter which would be only recognizable with close inspection, he first lays the canvas on the floor and drops paints on it. This is because in traditional painting works, materials such as paint and paper were used simply as a medium to draw forms (figurative or abstract), but in monochrome painting, the materiality of the material is actively expressed on the canvas.19) The Light-Grain series, created by layering hundreds, if not thousands of layers of paint, contains a spirit of moderation in which various colors intersect yet yield without conflict. In fact, similar examples of this methodology can easily be found in the methods of various other artists at the time who pursued the abstract expression of Korean sentimentality. For example, Park Seobo manifested the zeitgeist of Korea of his time and the resulting anxiety with “Korean Infomel,” and Chung Changsup was engrossed with capturing the unrefined materiality of “Hanji (traditional Korean paper),” which symbolized Korean culture and history. Together with Chung Changsup’s pupil, Kwon Hoonchill, who is known for his Thought Trend and Mandala series and won the Prime Minister's Award at the National Art Exhibition of The Republic of Korea, they were all prime examples of artists who endeavored to find the matiere best suited to Korean abstraction and best able to convey Korean sentimentality. Their overlapping of paint and repeated action of line drawing dissolved the material properties of the paint and turned the color into non-material light,20) and this achievement further advanced the exploration of Korean abstract and surface material, divorcing it from the Western monochromism centered around the Color-field Abstract. “Mulseong” painting in general can be traced back to the beginning of monochrome painting after the Informel, however the materialhood and the action, and their interdependency in the paintings of the Korean artists have expressed the aesthetic sense unique to Korean painting, different from the Minimalism of the West.21) Lee Choun Hwan's first abstract, the Light-Grain series, which makes full use of traditional materials and methods such as Korean paper and ink, can be regarded as a great attempt by a Korean artist to engage in the discussions on Informel and monochrome matiere. Furthermore, in the twenty-first century, Lee is producing a new Light-Grain series, conveying his thoughts on matiere and monochrome more theoretically than he had been, in the previous century.
III. The Unique Value of Lee Choun Hwan's Light-Grain Series
Art has performed many functions depending on the era and country, in addition to its intrinsic aesthetic function. Twentieth century art, however, could be understood as a movement away from its practical and secondary functions to find its own authentic and unique territory. One of the functions of art that defies this art movement in the twentieth century and still continues, is the function of providing comfort for people weary of the stark reality of life or guiding reflections on life by inducing meditation and/or evoking emotion.22) This may be why it is more meaningful and precious to have a viewer who looks at Mark Rothko's work, covered in deep colors, created by dozens or hundreds of brush strokes, and quietly share the emotion of the artist through the medium of his work, rather than engaging in a discussion about Color-field Abstract or the abstract expressionism of the United States. Lee Choun Hwan's fully-fledged abstract series, the Light-Grain, achieves this positive effect of art more than any other series he has created. As Kandinsky said, color and form in abstract art are "a means of exerting a direct influence upon the soul" and they “can express an inner turmoil and the soul’s cries on canvas” and “move people who empathize with these expressions.”23) Lee Choun Hwan's work follows this path exactly.
Lee once said that the ultimate level he aspired to was to produce works that people from all over the world could enjoy, regardless of whether they were Western or Eastern, and that even people unfamiliar with art could find pleasure in the same way as listening to music. This demonstrates that he fully understands the essential nature of abstract painting. Mark Brion regards abstract painting as the closest art form to music,24) and Kandinsky also exclaims, "Finally, (painting) has acquired the complete freedom of music and the painter has become a musician"25) by the unique power of expression through color and line. At first glance, it might seem an exaggeration to associate the visual art of painting with the auditory art of music, but the interface between the two seemingly different art forms can be found by envisaging the explosive freedom that color and rhythm bring beyond the bounds of their inherent disciplines. Furthermore, such an interface appears more prominently in abstract painting, where color and materiality are emphasized.
Lee Choun Hwan’s attempt in the Light-Grain series is directly influenced by the historical flow of Korean abstract art, and demonstrates that he continues to engage, both macroscopically and microscopically, with the issues that Korean abstraction endeavored to explore in the 70s. Essentially, it is in touch with the artistic spirit of the East, which does not distinguish knowledge from emotion. As shown in the artistic style combining poetry, calligraphy and painting, the principle of fortuity or spontaneity of Eastern art is grounded in the spirit of moderation. Entrusting oneself to the laws of nature is understood not as a loss of reason, but as being on a path to attaining full enlightenment.26) Lie Yll, who was at the forefront of Korean abstract art criticism in the 70s, argued that “art based on the distinctive Korean outlook on nature”27) was the spiritual essence of “Post Minimalism Abstraction” in Korea. Born in this intellectual environment and reborn in the twenty-first century, Lee Choun Hwan’s Light-Grain series is a unique and important work of an artist who meets the artistic challenge of expressing the Korean outlook on nature, through the matiere using the methodology of “colorism beyond the dimension of material and sensational colors, and monochromism which contains infinite shades such as ink painting,”28) from his very first work in this series in 1989 to the present day.
1) Henri Focillon, The World of Forms by Henri Focillon, translated by Kang Yeongju, (Hakgojae, Seoul, 2001), p.72. 2) Focillon, ibid., p.72
2) Henri Focillon, ibid., p.72
3) Henri Focillon, ibid., p.72
4) Kim Seunghwan, Abstract art and Religiosity: Mondrian and Mark Rothko, Journal of Contemporary Art Studies, 16(2), 2012, p.85.
5) Clement Greenberg, who wrote extensively on modern art, observes in his monumental critique of modernist painting, Modernist Painting, that Manet's paintings became the first Modernist ones by virtue of the frankness with which they declared the surfaces on which they were painted. See Clement Greenberg, Modernist Painting, Art and culture, translated by Cho Juyoun, (Kyungsung University Press, 2019), pp.344-354.
6) The title of the “first abstract artist,” perhaps the most prestigious title in contemporary art history, has long been given to Vasily Kandinsky, but recent research suggests that Hilma af Klint from Sweden might be entitled to that title.
7) Lee Changsoo, Interdependency of Action and Materialhood in Korean Contemporary “Mulseung” Paintings of 1970~1980's, Art and Media, 12(3), 2013, p.80.
8) Lee Changsoo, ibid., p.80.
9) Greenberg himself of course, in the process of deepening the discussion on canvas, mentions that “If the label “Abstract Expressionism” means anything, it means painterliness,” suggesting that “masses that blotted and fused...; large and conspicuous rhythms; broken color; uneven saturations or densities of paint; exhibited brush, knife or finger marks” are the basis of the painterliness. I personally find it delightful that he characterizes painterly abstraction in Europe in which materiality is accentuated, as “furtive bas-relief,” but he seems to be discussing the meaning and form of flatness in the contemporary abstraction here, rather than the painterly value of matter itself. I hope it is not a misreading on my part. See Clement Greenberg, After Abstract Expressionism, Art and Culture, translated by Cho Juyoun, (Kyungsung University Press, 2019), pp.355-370.
10) Henri Focillon, The World of Forms by Henri Focillon, translated by Kang Yeongju, (Hakgojae, Seoul, 2001), p.72.
11) Norbert Lynton, The Story of Modern Art, translated by Yoon Nanji, (Yekyeong, 1999), p.242
12) Kim Junghyuen, A Study on Expression Techniques Used in Infomel, Korean Society of Basic Design & Art, 6(3), 2005,
13) Park Sohyun, Abstract Art and Tradition in Japan: For Thinking about “Korean” Abstract Art, Korean Bulletin of Art History, 35, 2010, p.6.
14) Park Sohyun, ibid., p.6.
15) Park Sohyun, ibid., p.7.
16) Park Sohyun, ibid., p.7.
17) Oh Kwangsoo, Abstract, What Does It Mean to Us?, The Journal of Art Theory & Practice, 3, 2005, p.115
18) Yoon Nanji, Kim Hwanki's 1950s Paintings: An Approach to Early Korean Abstract Art, The Journal of History of Modern Art, 1995(3), p.91.
19) Kim Yisoon, Korean Abstract Art and Materiality in the 1970s and 1980s, Korean Bulletin of Art History, 35, 2010, p.140
20) Oh Kwangsu, The Trend of Dematerialization in 1970s Korean Art, The 20th Ecole de Seoul 20 years of Monochrome, (Kwanhoon Gallery, 1995); cited in Kim Yisoon, Korean Abstract Art and Materiality in the 1970s and 1980s, Korean Bulletin of Art History, 35, 2010, p.140, n.2.
21) Lee Changsoo, Interdependency of Action and Materialhood in Korean Contemporary “Mulseung” Paintings of 1970~1980's, Art and Media, 12(3), p.74.
22) Kim Seunghwan, Abstract art and Religiosity: Mondrian and Mark Rothko, Journal of Contemporary Art Studies, 16(2), 2012, p.86.
23) All three passages cited here are quoted from Min Joosik, Aesthetic Fundamentals of Abstract Art, Korean Bulletin of Art History, 34, 2010, p.22.
24) Min Joosik, ibid., p.23.
25) Min Joosik, ibid., p.23.
26) Yoon Nanji, ibid., p.107.
27) Lie Yll, The Formation and Development of Contemporary Art in Korea, Reduction and Expansion in Contemporary Art, (Youlhwadang, 1991), p.98; cited in Chung Moojeong, The Meaning and Characteristics of Modernism in Korean Art, Journal of Korean Modern & Contemporary Art History, 22, 2011, p.65.
28) Lie Yll, Korean Art, the Faces of the Day, (Space, 1982), pp.100-101; cited in Chung Moojeong, The Meaning and Characteristics of Modernism in Korean Art, Journal of Korean Modern & Contemporary Art History, 22, 2011, pp.65-66.
March 31, 2022
