Kim Tschang-yeul

Kim Tschang-yeul (24 December 1929 – 5 January 2021) was a South Korean artist in France known for his abstract paintings of water droplets.[1][2]

In this Korean name, the family name is Kim.
Kim Tschang-yeul
Hangul
김창열
Hanja
金昌烈
Revised RomanizationGim Chang-yeol
McCune–ReischauerKim Ch'angyŏl

Life

Kim was born on 24 December 1929 in Maengsan (modern-day North Korea) and was the eldest in the family of six children.[1] His mother, Ahn Yong Geum, was a homemaker, while his father, Kim Dae Gwon worked with the Ministry of Agriculture.[1] After his hometown was taken over by the Soviet Civil Administration following the division of Korea, he was arrested in 1946 for holding an anti-communist pamphlet. He was later released after 10 days and fled to Seoul under the US control.[1][3] In Seoul, he lived in a refugee camp for a year.[1]

Kim studied art at the Seoul National University until the communist capture of Seoul during Korean War in 1950. Following the capture, he escaped to Jeju Island where he worked as a police officer.[1] He returned back to Seoul when in 1953 when the violence ceased, and worked as an art teacher.[1] He later moved to the United States and France, where he remained for many years.[1][4]

In 1970 he met his wife Martine Gillon, and they were married two years later, around the time he had his eureka moment with the drops.[1] Kim died on 5 January 2021 in Seoul, South Korea at the age of 91.[1]

Art

In 1958, Kim formed the Modern Artists' Association and joined in Art Informel movement, led by Whanki Kim, a pioneering abstract artist of Korea.[2] In 1965, he went to New York and received a Rockefeller Foundation grant to study at the Art Students League of New York.[5] In 1969, he went to Paris and lived there for the next 45 years.

His breakthrough came in 1970s when he made his paintings Événement de la nuit, in which a large drop of water in set against a black on the droplet shines a reflection of the moonlight on a window. Since then Kim dedicated himself to paint water drops, exploring different arrangements.[6]

He has been compared to Lee Ufan and Nam June Paik and described as a "towering figure of Korean modern art".[7][8] Kim was named a chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1996 and received a silver crown (eungwan) of the Order of Cultural Merit in 2013.[9]

References
  1. Russeth, Andrew (15 January 2021). "Kim Tschang-Yeul, 91, Dies; Painted Water Drops Swollen With Meaning". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  2. Durón, Maximilíano (6 January 2021). "Kim Tschang-Yeul, Influential Korean Artist Whose Water Drop Paintings Created New Possibilities for Abstraction, Has Died at 91". ARTnews. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  3. Dagen, Philippe (6 January 2021). "Kim Tschang-yeul, le « peintre de la goutte d'eau », est mort". Le Monde (in French). Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  4. Kwon, Mee-yoo (17 November 2020). "Kim Tschang-yeul finds peace of mind in water drops, text". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  5. "Kim Tschang-Yeul (1929–2021)". Artforum. 6 January 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  6. "Kim Tschang-Yeul". Ocula. 17 January 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
  7. "Arte: è morto Kim Tschang-Yeul, il pittore della goccia d'acqua". La Sicilia (in Italian). Adnkronos. 6 January 2021. Archived from the original on 7 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  8. Yau, John (9 November 2019). "A Modern Trompe L'Oeil Painter". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on 13 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  9. "'Water drop' artist Kim Tschang-yeul dies at 91". Yonhap News Agency. 5 January 2021. Archived from the original on 7 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
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