Kim Tschang-yeul


Kim Tschang Yeul is a South Korean painter born in Maengsan, South P'yŏngan province, Chōsen, in Japanese occupied North Korea, on December 24, 1929.
Kim Tschang Yeul is part of the first generation of modern artists in South Korea. He is a prolific painter well known for his 'water drop' paintings, and has been one of the most influential figures in modern Korean art history. Although he started out as part of the Art Informel movement in South Korea, he has lived most of his adult life in Paris, France, where he developed his own unique style of painting.
After graduating from the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University in 1950, Kim led the Korean Art Informel movement with Park Seo-Bo, Suh Se-Ok, Ha Chong-Hyun, and Chung Chang-Sup in the 1950s and 60s. This movement greatly inspired many avant-garde artists of the next generation in rejecting the conservative values imposed on them by Korean institutions.
Shortly after his participation in the Paris Biennale in 1961 and the São Paulo Biennale in 1965, Kim moved to New York City and studied at the Art Students League of New York from 1966 to 1968. Kim Tschang Yeul's time spent in New York City allowed him to interact with and be inspired by the Pop art movement, which was a significant influence on him.
Because of his years abroad, Kim Tschang-Yeul developed his art outside of the Seoul and Tokyo art scene, developing his unique style parallel to the Dansaekhwa movement. In 1969, Kim moved from New York City to Paris, where he continued depicting opaque abstract liquid forms.
With time, the liquid abstract forms transformed into spherical, transparent 'water drops', which have become his distinctive, trademark style after the mid-1970s. The water drops have been Kim’s focus for the past five decades. He has pursued the painting of water drops between Seoul and Paris, where he lives and works.
Kim’s water drop paintings speak a language that amalgamates the discourses around photorealism and abstract expressionism, situating themselves in an ambiguous space between reality and the abstract. According to Kim, he does not interpret his subject as realistic depictions of actual water drops, but “idealistic” ones. Kim explains that the continued act of painting water drops helps him erase painful and traumatic memories of Korean War broke out between 1950 and 1953, where he witnessed the deaths of his younger sisiter and friends. In a way, the incessant act of painting water drops served as a therapeutic tool for him, bringing his art closer to surrealism and spirituality. Many have speculated about the meaning behind his obsession with water drops. On the subject of their repetitious painting, Kim has stated: 'I've said often that painting water drops is a way of erasing my ego. This is an idea close to Taoism and Zen Buddhism. In the West, I feel that Marcel Duchamp and Dada came closest to these philosophies.'
In 2016, the government of Jeju Province opened the Kim Tschang Yeul Art Museum in Artists' Village in Jeoji, Jeju island, South Korea, the highest honor bestowed upon a living Korean artist.
In 2017, he was awarded the Officier medal of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres bestowed by the Embassy of France in Seoul.
Kim Tschang Yeul is represented by Gallery Hyundai in South Korea and by Pearl Lam Galleries in Hong Kong and :fr:Almine Rech|Almine Rech Gallery.

Artwork

Kim is considered the artist that inspired monochrome painting in Korea, as well as being one of the most influential Korean masters in contemporary art in the West. At the time of Japanese colonialism and the Korean war, the turmoil of social culture and political history pushed Kim to participate in the movement of contemporary art and establish his self through art. In the 1960s, Kim left Korea to stay in New York; in the 1970s, Kim made Paris his home. A tranquil morning, sunlight slid in from the window, shining on the canvas sprayed with water the night before. The glistening and sparkling water drops at the moment moved Kim Tschang-yeul so much that he started painting waterdrops. Over the next forty years in Paris, Kim continued painting water drops, becoming known as the "painter of water drops". In 2004, Kim was invited to display his works in an art show at Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, where he was awarded with the Commandeur medal, the highest honor of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Kim Tschang-yeul's water drops are intimately connected to his life, that is, the wars, poverty, love and pain he experienced. By painting drops, over and over, he attempts to erase the pain and to look for absolute transparency, absolute withering, until he reaches a spiritual state of emptiness. He stated,
To Kim, the pure clean water drop is a consolation, a remedy for himself, seeking, not forgetting, peace, forgiveness, and reflection between now and the past. Regardless of single drops or in groups, the water drops of Kim Tschang-yeul are sprinkled non-uniformly upon the canvas of sleek or rough surface. It is as if they are falling off the canvas, or they are absorbed by the canvas but afloat, or it is that they are pulled out of the canvas by gravity. A ray of light gleams from the side, slightly gliding through the isolated water drops, reflecting their crystal clarity. The water drops give the extremely realistic impression made out of fiction, enticing people to touch them. Time also finds its own refraction in the water drops with enormous layers and transparency: every temporary moment that doesn't seem to be is actually permanent existence. How we captures the flashes of our creative mind determines how insightful that particular piece of memory unfolds to us. By making water drops the thematic subject of his painting career, for which he does with such care, details, and joy of art in everyday life, so much so that it paves the way to art for him. By 1972, new Waterdrops works showed a conceptual shift from the Phenomenon series which visualized the quality of existence.
Kim lived abroad for many years in the 1980s. He recalled reading and practicing writing when he was a child. Kim decided to draw positive texts from Thousand Character Classic, or deconstruct Chinese letters to compose together with water drops to create the new series Recurrence. It is a return to Kim's cultural origin as well as the origin of his life; it is also a struggle over the reality and illusion of time and space. By the 1990s, Kim began to paint water drops on wooden boards and newspapers like Le Monde, too, actively exploring new media and techniques for his works. In the other hand, he also makes several pieces of works in sculpture, with iron, bronze, or rock as the base, and with glass for water drops as the installation. Kim persists in pushing for extremely refined changes in plasticity as well as exploring the multiple aesthetic values of water. With his personal life force as well as his simple strokes and plain arrangement in the frame, Kim paints what his mind envisions. In this inner world, with all its moments, intervals, stillness and motions, rests a sophisticated life that opens to the universe through the strokes. No matter if it is his Waterdrops from the 1970s or Recurrence of the 1980s and 1990s, Kim structures countless highly realistic water drops in the abstract space. And, with the impermanence of time by which he contemplates, Kim expresses the immensity and nothingness of nirvana and ever-flowing life.
He has said that, "My waterdrops paintings are accomplished under the encounters of my life experiences and my plasticizing experiences." Each clear, impeccable water drop is in its initial state since purification, as if it is a recurrence of absolute nothingness; the water drop is also what it finally returns to."

Kim Tschang-Yeul Art Museum

In 2016, Kim Tschang-Yeul Art Museum opened in Jeju island, South Korea to honor the artist. Kim donated two hundred and twenty works. They represent all stages of his work from late 50's to present.

Selected Solo exhibitions

Kim Tschang-Yeul, :fr:Almine Rech|Almine Rech Gallery, New York
A Communion of Beads, Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong, China
Traces of Beads, Metaphysical Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris, France
Galerie 75 Faubourg - Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, France
Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea
National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
Gallery Hyundai, Seoul
Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris
Sakamoto Zenzo Museum of Art, Kumamoto, Japan
Draguignan Museum, Draguignan, France
Enrico Navarra Gallery, Paris, France
Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea
Kongkan Gallery, Pusan, Korea
SAGA, Paris
The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea
Chicago International Art Exposition, Gallery Hyundai, Chicago
Naviglio Gallery, Milan, Italy
Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo
Staempfli Gallery, New York,
Antwerp Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, Korea ;
Kunsthaus, Hamburg, Germany
INKO Arts, Galerie Sprick, Bochum, Rome, Italy
Knoll International, Paris
8th São Paulo Biennale
2nd Paris Biennale

Selected Group Exhibitions

2015
MMCA Collection Highlights: Untitled, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art,
Gwacheon, Korea
2014
Botero, Ufan Lee, Tschang-Yeul Kim, Galerie Bhak, Seoul, Korea
2013
A Moment of Truth, Hansol Museum, Wonju, Korea
2011
Qi is Full, Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea
2010
Portrait of the Korean War, Museum of Art at Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
Korean Avant-Garde Drawing, Soma Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
OFF the WALL, Clayarch Gimhae Museum, Gimhae, Korea
2009
Beginning the New Era, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
The Colour of Nature—Monochrome Art in Korea, Wellside Gallery, Shanghai, China
2008
Recomposition of the Works, Gyeongi Do Museum of Art, Ansan, Korea
Korean Contemporary Art Show, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, Singapore
2007
Writing Paintings, Painting Words, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Poetry in Motion, Galerie Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland
2006
Kim Whan-Ki, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Lee U-Fan, 1970–1980: Where, in What Form, Shall We Meet Again,
Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea
2005
Poem of Indian Ink, Guimet Museum of Asian Art, Paris, France
2004
Painting in Korea—Yesterday and Today, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2001
Monochrome Painting in Korea, Korea Art Gallery, Busan, Korea
Korean Contemporary Art Festival, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
2000
Gwangju Biennale 2000 Special Exhibition, The Facet of Korean and Japanese
Contemporary Art, Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea
1998
Les peintres du silence, Museum of Art and History, Monbliéard, France
1997
Made in France, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1996
Letter and Images, Hanlim Museum, Tae-Jeon, Korea
1992
Working with Nature: Traditional Thought in Contemporary Art from Korea, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool,
England
1988
Olympiad of Art: The International Contemporary Painting Exhibition. National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
1986
Seoul-Paris, Press Center, Seoul, Korea and Center National des Arts Plastiques, Paris, France
Korean Art Today, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
1984
Korean Contemporary Fine Arts Exhibition—The Stream of the ’70s, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei,
Taiwan
1983
Korean Contemporary Arts Exhibition—The Latter Half of the ’70s: An Aspect, Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo, Utsunomiya, Fukuoka, Japan
1982
Korean Contemporary Art Phase, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan
Works on Paper in Korea and Japan, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea;
travelled to Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto; The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama; and Kumamoto Traditional Crafts Center, Kumamoto, Japan
1981
Dealers Eyes, Long Island Museum, New York, USA
Korean Drawing Now, Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
1980
Asian Artists Exhibition Part 2, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Festival: Contemporary Asian Art Show, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Faculty Choices, Albany Museum, New York, USA
Salon des grands et jeunes d’aujourd’hui, Grand Palais, Paris, France
1979
Reality of Illusion Traveling Exhibition, Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA
1977
15th Biennale of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Korea: Facet of Contemporary Art, Tokyo Central Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Korean Modern Painting, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan
1976
Aspect of Realism, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada
1975
Salon de Mai, Paris, France
1974
Salon de Mai, Paris, France
1973
Salon de Mai, Paris, France
Salon des Réalitiés Nouvelles, Paris, France
12th Biennale of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
1972
Salon de Mai, Paris, France
50 Paintings of Salon de Mai de Paris, Yugoslavia
Festival International de la Peinture, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France
8th Prints Biennale of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
4 Painters Exhibition, Museum of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France
1971
Korean Contemporary Painting Exhibition, Paris, France
1969
Avant-Garde Festival, New York, USA
1965
8th Biennale de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
1962–64
The Actuel Exhibition, Shinsegae Art Hall, Seoul, Korea
1961
The 2nd Biennale de Paris, Paris, France

Selected Public Collections

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA
Aqua Museum 104°, Shimane, Japan
Art Center Nabi, Seoul, Korea
Bochum Museum Art Collection, Bochum, Germany
Busan City Museum of Art, Busan, Korea
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea
Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea
Daelim Museum, Seoul, Korea
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, United States.
Fondation Veranneman, Ghent, Belgium
Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Fundació Stämpfli, Sitges, Barcelona, Spain
Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea
Hakodate Museum, Hokkaido, Japan
Hansol Museum, Wonju, Korea
Hiroshima Contemporary Museum of Art, Hiroshima, Japan
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., USA
Ho-Am Art Museum, Yongin, Korea
Iwaki City Art Museum, Iwaki, Japan
Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, Japan
Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
Museum of Oriental Art, Cologne, Germany
Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Niigata Prefectual Museum of Modern Art, Niigata, Japan
Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan
Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Seoul National University Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Shimonoseki City Museum of Art, Shimonoseki, Japan
Sonjae Museum of Contemporary Art, Gyeongju, Korea
Sunkyung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Takamatsu, Japan
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul, Korea
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada

Art market

Many works by the artist have been sold at auction, including 'Gouttes d'eau' sold at Korea Premier Auction 'K Auction 2016 May Hong Kong Sale' in 2016 for $2,300,000.

Selected publications

2009 Morgan, Robert C., Kim Tschang-Yeul: The Paradox of Meaning, PYO Gallery, Seoul.
2008 Sergeant, Philippe, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Éditions de la Différence, Paris.
2002 Barrière, Gérard, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Galerie Bhak, Seoul.
2000 Restany, Pierre, “A Bit of the Comet’s Coma”, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul.
Restany, Pierre, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Galerie Bhak, Seoul.
1998 Chiba, Shigeo, “Like Play, Also Like a God”, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo.
Shioda, Junichi, “A Word About Kim’s Paintings: The Waterdrops and the Kanji Characters”, in
Tschang Yeul Kim: Water Drops—Play and Prayer, Sakamoto Zenzo Museum of Art, Kumamoto.
Masuda, Ryoske, “Entretien”, in Kim Tschang-Yeul: Water Drops—Play and Prayer, Sakamoto Zenzo
Museum of Art, Kumamoto.
1997 Matheson, John, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Antwerp Gallery, Anvers
Byong-Kwan, Jeung, “Notes Verbales”, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Galerie Bhak/Gallery Hyundai, Seoul.
1994 Byong-Kwan, Jeung, “The Artist’s Avant-Garde Spirit Seen from the Transition of the Waterdrops”, in
Kim Tschang-Yeul: Waterdrops, Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyongju, pp7–12.
Tae-Sung, Kang, “Transformation of the World of Water, Waterdrops”, in Kim Tschang-Yeul:
Waterdrops, Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyongju, pp13–21.
1993 Lee, Yil, “Kim Tschang-Yeul’s ‘Water Drops’ oeuvre and its path", in Kim Tschang-Yeul, National
Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, pp48–60.
Cohen, Ronny, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Hudson Hills Press, New York.
Kyong-Soo, Lee, “Literature on Water Drops”, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, National Museum of
Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, pp30–37, pp25–29.
Cyroulnik, Philippe, “Kim Tschang-Yeul”, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, National Museum of Contemporary
Art, Gwacheon, pp73–75.
Oh, Kwang-Soo, “Kim Tschang-Yeul’s ‘Drops of Water’ as the Essence of Consciousness", in Kim
Tschang-Yeul, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, pp30–37.
Restany, Pierre, “The Other Place”, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, National Museum of Contemporary Art,
Gwacheon, pp25–29.
Bosquet, Alain, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, pp115–119
.
Barrière, Gérard, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, pp11–27.
Barrière, Gérard, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, pp28–38.
Cohen, Ronny, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, pp61–71.
Cohen, Ronny, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, pp69–78.
Cohen, Ronny, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, pp102–116.
Byong-Kwan, Jeung, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, pp77–95.
Kwang-Soo, Oh, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, pp7–12.
Restany, Pierre, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, pp7–10.
Restany, Pierre, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, pp17–25.
Ufan, Lee, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, pp97–105.
Matheson, John, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, pp107–113
.
Barrière, Gérard, “Notes on Kim Tschang-Yeul or The Universe After the Rain”, in Kim Tschang-Yeul,
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, pp38–47.
1991 Cohen, Ronny, “Introduction”, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Sigma Gallery/Staempfli Gallery, New York.
Yil, Lee, “Kim Tschang-Yeul’s 1000 Characters and Water Drops”, Inkong Gallery, Daegu.
Yil, Lee, Kongkan Gallery, Busan.
1988 Yil, Lee, “Kim Tschang-Yeul and a Water Drop”, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Tokyo
Gallery, Tokyo.
Moriguchi, Akira, “Kim Tschang-Yeul—Luminous and Fresh Paintings”, in Tschang-Yeul Kim, Seibu
Contemporary Art Gallery, Tokyo.
1987 Wolff, Theodore F., “Tschang-Yeul Kim”, Staempfli Gallery, New York.
1983 Yil, Lee, “This is Not a Water Drop”, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo.
1979 Bosquet, Alain, “The Waterdrops of Kim”, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Staempfli Gallery, New York, pp30–37
.
Byong-Kwan, Jeung, “Painting of Another Genre”, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Staempfli Gallery, New York,
pp8–27.
Ufan, Lee, “Entre l’idée et la matière”, in Kim Tschang-Yeul,
Staempfli Gallery, New York, pp38–39.
Matheson, John, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Staempfli Gallery, New York, pp48–55.
Staempfli, George W., “Introduction” in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Staempfli Gallery, New York, pp6–7.
1978 Ufan, Lee, “Fra l’idea e la material”, Galleria del Naviglio, Milan
.
Staempfli, George W., Staempfli Gallery, New York.
1976 Bosquet, Alain, “Les gouttes de Kim” in T. Kim, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul.
Yil, Lee, “To Brother Tschang-Yeul”, in T. Kim, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul.
Nakahara, Yusuke, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo.
1974 Bosquet, Alain, “Die Wassertropfen von Kim”, Galerie Sprick, Bochum.
Bosquet, Alain, “20 gouttes d’eau pour Kim” in
Kim, Gouttes d’eau, Galerie Engelberts, Geneva.
1973 Leuwers, Daniel and Ryoske Masuda, Knoll International, Paris.
Pre-1973 Yil, Lee, Kasahara Gallery, Osaka.
Matheson, John, “Merely Drops of Water?”
Restany, Pierre, in Kim Tschang-Yeul, Galerie Bhak, Seoul.
Lewis Biggs. Working with Nature: Traditional Thought in Contemporary Art from Korea: Chung, Chang-Sup; Yun, Hyong-Keun; Kim, Tschang-Yeul; Park, Seo-Bo;
Lee, U-Fan; Lee, Kang-So.este señor a creado en sus dibujos el relieve
Ronny Cohen. Tschang Yeul Kim.

Writings by the Artist

1962 “My Vision”, Taehan Ilbo, Seoul, 1 January 1962.
1960 “Note”, Hanguk Ilbo, Seoul, 24 January 1960.
1960 “The Problem of 30 Years”, Segye Ilbo, Seoul, 31 May 1960.
1960 “The Advance of the Avant-Garde”, Jayu Munhak, Seoul, December 1960.
1958 “Secret Words”, Hanguk Ilbo, Seoul, 11 January 1958.