Kim Taek-Sang (b. 1958), a leading Korean Post-Dansaekhwa painter, captures the beauty of nature on canvas. As a child growing up in Wonju, Gangwon Province, the artist was greatly influenced by the colors of nature. Observing the beauty hidden in the colors of nature, Kim's constant search for the essence of water to express its brilliance has led to his current work.

Fascinated by the color of the crater in Yellowstone National Park in the United States, which he saw in a documentary one day, he tried to capture it on canvas, but realized that he could not do it in the way he had been painting, so he began to study water for a long time. After understanding the color of water and the process by which it is created, he abandoned all previous techniques and built his own artistic world to express the color of water as closely as possible.

The 'Water' series, which was presented in his first solo exhibition in 1994, was mostly blue-colored. In response, the artist recalled that it was a time when he could not escape the stereotype of the 'concept' and 'language' of water as blue. This prompted him to further immerse himself in the study of water, and he came to understand that the color of water has multiple colors depending on its composition and environment, and built his own method.

Kim's ‘Water’ works are not painted by the artist's brushstrokes but by directing the water to paint itself. The artist creates a concave canvas frame with a slope and pours water diluted with acrylic so that the canvas is submerged. The artist then controls the amount of surface that is submerged and the time it takes to settle, then allows it to dry. He repeats this process, building up layers to capture light and color.

This process involves many natural elements such as light, wind, time of day, air, and seasons in the studio. For example, “gravity” is needed to bring down the colors, and “wind” and “sunlight” to dry the canvas. In order to achieve the effect of uncontrolled light through these natural interventions, the artist minimizes his own intervention. In his 2004 work, Hue of Time, the traces of time and the movement of water, which seeped and smeared like ink on the canvas, remain in the canvas.

Through this repetitive process, the thin layers are built up, and the finished painting seems to breathe with a living, breathing light. Kim’s Breathing Light series embodies living light and color, like its title.

The artist finds beauty in the movement of light as it changes over time, like the inhalation and exhalation of life. And the artist saw the resonance of life as manifesting in color. Kim's work is about taking a lifeless object, the canvas, and imbuing it with a life force that is actually 'alive' like the colors of natural life.

This in-depth consideration of the fundamental principles and properties of color and light leads the artist to constantly explore color choices and the physical nature of paint materials themselves. The first thing he considers when choosing colors, he says, is that they should be colors that his body can respond to and be moved by. For example, he says that when he uses purple, he feels most at ease and calm.

In fact, although Kim's paintings are called ‘Dansaekhwa’, he rarely works entirely in one color. The process of precipitating different colors is repeated, and the final result is a single color. However, the paints of different colors could not be able to mix, and the result is not a Dansaekhwa, but a painting with layers of different colors. In other words, it is not a painting realized by the artist's perfect control, but a painting that opens up various possibilities led by the processes of nature and resonates with them.

In 2023, the artist presented a new work, Resonance, as part of the two-person exhibition “Reflections and Refractions” with American artist Helen Pashgian at Lehmann Maupin Seoul. The Resonance series is an extension of the artist's process of capturing the vitality of light with the participation of natural elements, as in his previous works, but it is characterized by a freer use of color than before.

For the Resonance series, the artist explains that inspired by the ‘beating effect,’ in which two sounds of different vibrations interfere with each other, spreading the sound further by repeating their intensity, he adds color in layers, leaving 'in-between' in time.

Kim Taek-sang's paintings do not assert the presence of the artist. Instead, the artist and natural elements such as water, gravity, and wind meet within the frame of the canvas, forming an organic collaboration and resonance, resulting in a history of time.

“It's a way for water to reveal itself, and I'm just the conductor. It's like the role of a farmer who takes care of growing crops with water, time, gravity, and wind.”

Kim Taek-Sang received his BFA from the Department of Painting at Chung-Ang University and his MFA from the Department of Western Painting at Hongik University. He has held several solo exhibitions at various institutions including Leeahn Gallery, Seoul, Daegu; Taguchi Fine Art, Tokyo; and Lehmann Maupin, Palm Beach, and has participated in group exhibitions at international institutions including Lehmann Maupin Seoul, Daegu Art Museum, and Esther Schipper Berlin and Seoul. His works are in the collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), Kumho Museum of Art, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, and Suwon IPARK Museum of Art. He retired as a professor at Cheongju University in 2020 and now spends his time immersing himself in his work as an artist. 

References

• 김택상, 리안갤러리 (Kim Taek-Sang, Leeahn Gallery)
• 대구미술관, 물, 불, 몸 (Daegu Art Museum, Water, Fire, Body)
• 리빙센스, 빛과 바람과 시간이 빚어낸 예술, 김택상 작가
• 뉴스핌, 단색화가 김택상의 날선 비판 “미술 프레임, 서양으로 편향”, 2024.02.03
• 리안갤러리, 색과 빛 사이에서 (Leeahn Gallery, Between color and light)
• 매일경제, 빛과 색으로 통한 동서양 작가, 2023.02.06