Homage to Kim Tschang-Yeul

For Kim Tschang-Yeul, the "waterdrop" was a world in which he gathered the fear of death and the inescapable wounds and tears he carried within him. In the film The Man Who Paints Water Drops, Kim said of his life, "Painting waterdrops is a way of erasing every memory — of washing away all evil and anxiety with water." For Kim, painting was a way of consoling the souls of the dead, and through his work he transmuted blood, a symbol of death, into the waterdrop, the source of life. Through a repetitive, almost devotional act, he washed away the pain of the era he lived through, and invited viewers who encountered his work to share in that process — a meditation on a life that flows from suffering toward release. For half a century he devoted himself solely to the waterdrop, earning lasting renown as "the waterdrop artist."

One of Y.K. Byun's signature series, "R.F.I.M," derives its formal structure from repetition — thickly applied paint pushed up at regular intervals, or dots of identical size layered again and again, producing works that resemble the swell of ocean waves.

Kyoungmug Park believes that every object in nature exists on a foundation of condensed time and force. Working from a subjective palette of ink tones, he borrows the shapes of his subjects and lets inner emotion seep across the surface of the work.

Sungwon Jung hopes to offer, through painting, a surreal world to people whose emotions are drying up in a society far from the ideal we live in — inviting them to converse within the canvas and take a happier journey. For this "Homage to Kim Tschang-Yeul" exhibition, Jung has woven the waterdrop into his own work.

Kim Tschang-Yeul's life, marked by the pain and suffering, the sorrow and fear of war, found its transcendence in the countless waterdrop works that accompanied him for half a century. We invite you into this space of philosophical reflection, where Kim Tschang-Yeul — who sought to dissolve everything into the waterdrop and return it to nothingness — meets the artists who now pay him homage.