- Hiding and Revealing -
Rim Jai Kwang
(Art Critic, Professor of Kongju National University)
November, 2017
- Colors
The first thing you notice in paintings by Lee Yang-sun, one of central artists of Western paintings in the nation, is colors. Gorgeous primary colors based on Obangsaek(five traditional colors of Korea) fill up the canvas with no blanks, thus giving out light, bright, splendid, and intense feelings. Her colors remind me of cheerful color fields found in pop art or intense colors used by expressionist artists. She, however, found her motif in Obangsaek, the five traditional colors of Korea.
She came across Obangsaek in Dancheong, which is traditional multicolored paintwork on wooden buildings, in an inquiry process into Koreanness. She, who majored in Western paintings in college, made an inquiry to discover Korean aesthetics based on her affection for things that were Korean and had an encounter with Obangsaek.
There are two opposite traditional views of colors in Korea: one is white representing the Korean people as the white-clad folk, and the other Obangsaek found in traditional multicolored paintwork on wooden buildings and folk paintings. These traditional views of colors were subjected to mainstream perceptions over time. White was the color of the Korean people until the 1970s, which perception was attributed to Yanagi Muneyoshi, a modern Japanese aesthetician that defined "beauty of white" as the aesthetics of Joseon Dynasty, and the tradition of Korean people enjoying white clothes since Korean dynasty.
Entering the 1980s, however, Obangsaek started to attract attention as the colors to represent Korea. Holding Summer Olympics in 1988, Korea introduced its image based on the splendid colors of Obangsaek to the world. Obangsaek was an object of attraction to artists in search for Koreanness or something Korean. Lee Yang-sun focused on Obangsaek, joining her contemporary artists with this aesthetics in an inquiring attitude
- Nature
The content and objects of Lee's works have always revolved around nature. Many of her works are titled Untitled, and she tends to create an abstract title for her works rather than a direct one in spite of certain objects in her works. She, for instance, used indirect and abstract words for titles such as Connection, Passion, Going Out, Showers, and Missing in her lotus flower series of 2015. The material of her works is nature, but her creative direction is not merely a pursuit of nature itself. Nature is a means and medium to reflect her desire for internal expressions.
This exhibition is sponsored by "Supportive Project for Local Culture and Art of 2017" by Sejong Special Self-governing City and Sejong Cultural Foundation, thus getting materials from the beautiful natural environments and symbols of Sejong City. She could have given a title to each work of this exhibition after its object, but she combined abstract and indirect words for titles this time, as well. Her works, for example, on trees are titled February, The Festival, The Whole World, Spring, Splendid Days, and The Banquet of Spring based on words that give no hints about shapes.
Viewers get to have room for imagination, standing in relations between her works and their titles. They are encouraged to broaden the scope of their thinking between the ideas of language in her titles and the true visual nature of her paintings. She helps them expand the scope of their imagination instead of restricting that of their understanding with her titles.
- Lines
There are considerably abundant line elements in Lee's works. Lines are directly revealed in her works depicting lotus flowers and trees, and lines are created through blanks left behind after primary ground colors are erased in her winter mountain series. Lines become prominent by boundaries between objects and also by blanks left behind.
Lee's works have different attributes from both sides. She shows intense pictures in primary colors as they are on the one hand and cover up their splendor with white on the other hand. Intersection between "painting and erasing" and "revealing and hiding" shows the expression and control of emotions. These ambivalent expressions help to maintain the state of control and balance. This is her sense of balance attributed to her life attitude. It is only natural that an artist's works reflect his or her human character and nature just like they are closely related to his or her life.
Life
Focusing on "colors," "nature" and "lines" of various elements in her works, I examined Lee's creative viewpoint based on her attitude and method of dealing with the elements. She projects her inside onto her works rather than depicting the exterior forms of nature itself when she works with nature and maintains an inquiring attitude of pursuing Koreanness through the traditional colors of Obangsaek.
She also employs her unique method of "hiding and revealing" and "painting and erasing," dealing with lines, which are the biggest element in her formative canvas composition. By applying these creative approaches, she shows the control of emotions and balanced life attitude.
Like most female artists, Lee also takes a hiatus in creative production. She had to put aside her passion of younger days when she chose a path as an artist and was active in the field as a busy artist for marriage, child birth, and childcare. After fulfilling her basic duties, she now continues to create as an artist by refusing giving up art that has been her life and path.
Going through the process, she changed from oil paintings to acrylic paintings and naturally altered her viewpoints of things and her methods of painting.
Her style of revealing Obangsaek splendidly and also pressing and hiding it with white must have something to do with her life attitude. I expect she will create such remarkable works with her rekindled passion as an artist.