Kim Tschang-Yeul (B. 1929)

Water is a nearly universally recognised symbol, embodying ideas of purity and spiritual cleansing, emptiness and the infinite. These symbolic properties can be found not only visually but in the extended, deliberately meditative practice of Kim Tschang Yeul. After World War II and the subsequent Korean War, many artists throughout Korea and Japan turned away from figurative expression, instead moving towards expressive forms that bear some resemblance to Minimalism in the West. At the same time, the spiritual and philosophical underpinnings of these creations had distinct roots in East philosophy and aesthetics. Born in 1929, Kim Tschang-Yeul,
a learned man in classical Chinese calligraphy and Asian philosophy, was exposed to Western art by his mother, who passionately encouraged his interest in the arts. Settling in Paris in 1970, Kim developed his signature style and motif: the representation of the water drop. As the artist has explained: ‘I paint water drops because I want to dissolve everything inside them, and return to nothingness. Anger, anxiety, fear-I want them all to become emptiness’ (T.-Y. Kim, quoted in, Kim Tsang-Yeul, exh. cat., Tokyo Gallery, 1988).