SPACE February 2025 (No. 687)
Exhibition view of ‘KIM Whanki_The Immortal Nature’ ©Whanki Museum
On Dec. 6, 2024, Whanki Museum reopened after a major renovation project. The re-opening exhibition, ‘KIM Whanki_The Immortal Nature’ reflects on the artistic evolution of Kim Whanki (1913 – 1974). On the first floor, early drawings of his depicting objects or landscapes and oil paintings containing Korean motifs such as mountains, moons, flowers, birds, trees and round vessels have been displayed. The second-floor highlights works painted in Paris and the time after his return from Paris. This period marks his transition towards abstraction. Abstract drawings, various material experiments with sand, cement and other abstract oil paintings are curated within the exhibition zone. On the third floor, the exhibition features later works from his New York period, the final chapter of his life. In this period, he completed his signature dot paintings. He intentionally erases specific motifs from his canvas but starts to use dots, lines and planes in his compositions. Specifically, the blue dot painting overwhelms viewers like a big wave. During his lifetime, the artist noted, ‘Art should not be neither philosophy nor aesthetics, it simply exists, like the sky, the ocean, or the rocks on the mountain,’ and ‘the essence of nature is on itself, not on its name.’ ‘KIM Whanki_The Immortal Nature’ offers a glimpse of the natural world he strived to capture until the end of his life. The exhibition will be on show until Mar. 5. Image courtesy
