Tschang-Yeul KIM
Introduction
Kim Tschang-Yeul was born in 1929 in Maing-Sang, a little village in Japanese occupied Korea (modern-day North-Korea). As soon as 1933, his paternal grandfather, great calligrapher, taught him the ancestral art of calligraphy. Following Taoism and Confucianism, the young Kim endlessly traced ideograms.
In 1942, he entered Pyong-Yang's highschool and discovered the works of old masters – his favourite was Leonardo Da Vinci. While he practiced copy and started to paint with models, his father encouraged him to pursue law school. In 1946, he moved to South Korean alone to flee communism and the government. He frequented a workshop in which he discovered his preference for charcoal drawing. He also learned English and French there. In 1949, he studied art history and oil painting at the Seoul National University. From 1950 to 1953, his first informal canvas, inspired by the memories of the Korean war during which he was sent on Jeju island, are characterized by dots and monochrome lines.
In 1954, he became the director of Seoul Police Library for which he bought art, philosophy, economics and politics books. During the following years, he started teaching the arts in the high schools around and in Seoul. Simultaneously, while working as an assistant in Li Bong-Sang's workshop, he met artists with whom he gathered. They then became the Hyundai Association, the association of Korean contemporary artists (Hyundai means “contemporary” in Korean). According to Kim “it was the opportunity to comprehend every important aspect of the Western production, to exchange, and to feed our reflection. We were progressing step by step; from Cézanne to Cubism, to Dada, from Surrealism to the Informalism.” Between 1957 and 1960, the association organised many exhibitions, which contributed to supporting the visibility of contemporary art in Korea. In France and Japan, art magazines, and especially Art d'Aujourd'hui and Cimaise, wrote about the group. In 1962, due to the pressure of the military regime on the art world, the organization had to change its name to “Present Group”. Kim wrote the organization's second manifesto in 1961, the same year he exhibited some of his work at the Biennale de Paris. His first solo exhibition, a selection of his abstract work, would not be held until 1963.
Between 1965 and 1969, Kim flew to New York with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation. There, he became acquainted with the New York Art Student League. During this time, painters like Rothko or Bacon highly influenced Kim's work and were proved to have a decisive impact on it. The philosophical and founding motif of the water drop, as well as an instinctive taste for abstraction, emerged then.
Kim settled in France at the beginning of the 1970s, in a studio in Palaiseau (Paris's region). There, he deployed what started in New York. His technic concentrates on the emerging of new forms: light bulbs, like in the Procession series, repetition and starkness of the drop on the canvas. He took part in several exhibitions acclaimed by critiques, and was awarded in 1973 the first price of the 12th Sao Paulo Biennale. This price established him on the international scene and allowed him to present his work all around the world. Since then, he is considered a major contemporary artist and Koreans call him “Master”. The particularity of his painting revolves in the choice of a recurring motif: the water drop.
In 2016, the government of the Jeju province opened the Kim Tschang Yeul Museum of Art in the artist village of Jeoji, Jeju Island, in South Korea, to which Kim donated some of his work. It was the highest honour ever awarded to a living Korean artist.
In 2017, he was decorated Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ambassy in Seoul.
Kim Tschang-Yeul died on January 5th 2021 at the Koryo hospital in Seoul (South Korea).
Biography
South Korean artist born in 1929. Lives and works in Paris and Seoul.
- 1929 - Birth in Maing-San, Korea
- 1948 - 1950 : College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University
- 1965 - 1968 : The Arts Student League of New York
- 1969 : Moved to Paris
- 1996 : Received the Medal of Knight of Art and Letters, Embassy of France, Seoul, Korea
Solo exhibitions (selected)
2019
- Kim Tschang-Yeul: New York to Paris, Tina Kim Gallery, New York
- Récurrence, Kim Tschang-Yeul Art Museum, Jeju, Corée du Sud
- L'événement de la nuit, Chapelle du Méjan, Arles, France
2017
- A Communion of Beads, Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong, Chine
- Traces of Beads, Metaphysical Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2016
- Kim Tschang-Yeul, baudoin lebon, Paris, France
- 75 Faubourg Gallery, Paris, France
2014
- Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, South Korea
- Konjiam Gallery, Gwangju, South Korea
- Kongkan Gallery, Busan, South Korea
2013
- Pluies sur papiers, baudoin lebon, Paris, France
- Park Ryu Sook Gallery, Jeju, South Korea
- Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2012
- National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
2011
- Art Paris, baudoin lebon, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2010
- Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2009
- Busan Museum of Art, Busan, South Korea
- PYO Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2008
- baudoin lebon, Paris, France
- PYO Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
- Valérie Bach Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2007
- Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2006
- PYO Beijing, Beijing, China
2005
- The National Museum of China Invitation Exhibition, Beijing, China
- Gallery BHAK, Seoul, South Korea
2004
- Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
- National Gallery of Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
2002
- BHAK Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2000
- Hyundai Gallery / BHAK Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
1999
- Andrew Shire Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
- Enrico Navarra Gallery, Paris, France
1998
- MMG Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
- Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
- Sakamoto Zenzo Museum of Art, Kumamoto, Japan
1997
- BHAK Gallery / Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
- Draguignan Museum, Draguignan, France
- Aqua Museum 104 Inaugural Commemoration Exhibition Shimane, Japan
- Atrium Gallery, Ulsan, South Korea
1996
- Taipei Art Fair International, with Enrico Navarra Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
- Enrico Navarra Gallery, Paris, France
1995
- Mural Painting Installation, Fukuoka City Public Library, Fukuoka, Japan
- Kongkan Gallery, Busan, South Korea
1994
- Sonjae Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyoung-Ju, South Korea
- Kongkan Gallery, Busan, South Korea
1993
- SAGA, Matsumura Graphics-Tokyo, Paris, France
- The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheron, South Korea
1991
- Sigma Gallery, New York, USA
- Staempfli Gallery, New York, US
1990
- Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
1989
- Suzukawa Gallery, Hiroshima, Japan
- Chicago International Art Exposition, Hyundai Gallery, Chicago, USA
- Los Angeles International Art Fair, Hyundai Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
1988
- Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
- Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
- Seibu Contemporary Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1987
- Naviglio Gallery, Milan, Italy
- Moos Gallery, Toronto, Canada
- Staempfli Gallery, New York, USA
- Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
1985
- FIAC, Staempfli Gallery, New York, USA
1984
- Art Basel, Staempfli Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
- Staempfli Gallery, New York, USA
- Suzukawa Gallery, Fukuoka, Japan
1983
- Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
- Staempfli Gallery, Odzka, Japan
- Kasahara Gallery, Osaka, Japan
- Verannemamn Foundation, Kruishoutem, Belgium
Group exhibitions (selected)
- The Eastern Gesture. Five voices from Korean avant-garde, Dep Art Gallery, Milan, Italy
- Accidents [Part I], Pearl Lam Galleries, Central Hong Kong
2019
- Abstraction(s), Song Art Museum, Beijing, China
- Art Elysées, baudoin lebon, Paris, France
- Introspection and Exploration: Artistic Generations in Asia, Longmen Art Projects, Hong Kong
- Ways of Seeing, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belgium
2016
- Korean Artists in France, Musée Cernuschi, Paris, France
- Art Busan, baudoin lebon, Busan, South Korea
- Art Paris Art Fair, baudoin lebon, Paris, France
- India Art Fair, baudoin lebon, New Delhi, India
2015
- Korean Abstract Painting - 45th Anniversary of Hyundai Gallery, Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
- Art Elysées, baudoin lebon, Paris, France
- KIAF, baudoin lebon, Seoul, South Korea
2014
- Art Elysées, baudoin lebon, Paris, France
2013
- India Art Fair, baudoin lebon, New Delhi, India
- Art Show Busan, baudoin lebon, Busan, South Korea
2012
- Blank, Speak to Untold, Park Ryu Sook Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
- Cogitation on Korean Modern Art, Pohang Museum of Steel Art, Pohang, South Korea
2011
- Qi is Full, Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, South Korea
2010
- Korean Avant-garde Drawing, Soma Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
- In the Midest of the Korean Contemporary Art, Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
- Wastelands of Fire : Portraits of Korean War, Museum of Art, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
2009
- Beginning the New Era, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
- Color of Nature : Korean Monochrome Painting, Wellside Gallery, Shanghai, China
- Art and Chinese Character, Gallery 604, Busan, South Korea
2008
- Korean Contemporary Art Show, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
- Contemporary Korean Artists in Paris, Seoul Art Center, Seoul, South Korea
- Kim Tschang Yeul & Paik Nam June, Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2007
- Linguistic Figure, Figurative Language : Word and Art, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
- The Spirit of Korean Realism Painting, Hyundai Gallery & Sai Art, Seoul, South Korea
- Special Exhibition of Print, Designer Joo Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2006
- Kim Whan-Ki, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Lee U-Fan, 1970-1980 : where, in what Form, Shall We Meet Again, Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2005
- Poem of Indian Ink, Guimet Museum of Asian Art, Paris, France
2004
- Painting in Korea, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
2002
- Work on Paper by 4 Korean Artists, Bijutsu Sekai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
- Mondial, Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
- Enrico Navarra Gallery, Paris, France
2001
- Korean Cultural and Art Foundation, Seoul, South Korea
- Monochrome Painting in Korea, Korea Art Gallery, Busan, South Korea
- Aspects of Contemporary Art in Korea, Bijutsu Sekai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
- L'Art à la Plage, Enrico Navarra Gallery, Ramatuelle, France
2000
- Art Chicago at Navy Pier, BHAK Gallery, Chicago, USA
1999
- L'Art à la Plage, Enrico Navarra Gallery, Ramatuelle, France
- Art Cologne, Bhak Gallery, Koln, Germany
- NICAF, Bhak Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
1998
- 80 artistes autour du Monde, Enrico Navarra Gallery, Paris, France
1997
- Made In France, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1996
- SIAF, Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
- Letter and Images, Hanlim Museum, Daejeon, South Korea
- Art Chicago at Navy Pier, Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
1995
- FIAC, Hyundai Gallery & Enrico Navara Gallery, Paris, France
1994
- L'Art à la Plage, Enrico Navarra Gallery, Ramatuelle, France
- NICAF, with Hyundai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1992
- Working with Nature, Tate Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom
- School of Seoul, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
- Hangul, Saoulim Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
1991
- School of Seoul, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
1990
- School of Seoul, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
1989
- School of Seoul, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
1988
- Olympic '88 Seoul, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, South Korea
- Olympic '88 Seoul International Graphic Work Exhibition, Loyd Shine Fine Art Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
1987
- School of Seoul, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Exhibitions
gallery exhibition
le dessin de A à Z
Publication
editor : baudoin lebon & enrico navarra
public price : 20 €
langue : Français/anglais
pays : France
pages : 112
format : 28,5 x 24,5 cm
reliure : collé
Baudoin Lebon et Enrico Navarra publient un catalogue à l'occasion de la double exposition qui se tient en l'honneur de KIM dans leur galerie respective à Paris.
17 mars - 7 mai 2016
public price : 15 €
auteur : Baudoin Lebon
éditeur : baudoin lebon
langue : Français/Anglais
pays : France
pages : 44
format : 16,5 x 21 cm
reliure : Broché
Monography
KIM Tschang-Yeul
auteur : Philippe Sergeant
editeur : La Différence
langue : Français
pays : France
pages : 357
format : 40x37.5cm
reliure : Broché
prix public : 75 euros