Highly Abstract Figurative Oil Paintings: Long-Unfulfilled Dreams of Mine

Leonardo, Vol. 13, pp. 219-220. Pergamon Press, 1980. Printed in Great Britain. HIGHLY ABSTRACT FIGURATIVE OIL PAINTINGS: LONG-UNFULFILLED DREAMS OF MINE Byong Rye Kim* with Hee Mong Kim** and David W. Brisson*** 1. I have been painting pictures as an adult since the autumn of 1976 when I was 51 years of age. At that time my husband, the Korean architect Chung Up Kim, took up a teaching position at the Rhode Island School of Design at Providence, Rhode Island. We became friends with David Brisson, who taught design there, and he offered to help me learn some of the approaches applied in comtemporary painting. Thus, rather late in life, I began to paint, something I had dreamt of doing since childhood. As a secondary-school student in Pyong-Yang, Korea, I became enchanted by and quite skilful with embroidery. In the tradition of my country, I depicted flowers, animals and landscapes with many-colored threads. I also became a very good short-distance runner and developed a highly competitive spirit. These two contrasting activities, one passive and the other highly active, contributed to the traits of patience and determination that my friends tell me I possess. Upon graduation from the Seo-Moon Girls High School in 1941, I married and in subsequent years visited many cities in the world: Seoul, Pusan, Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Providence. In Seoul, painters and poets often came to our home, and we spent much time talking about the arts and artistic creativity. But this was the period when my energy was primarily directed to household matters and to raising five children. Between 1973 and 1975 we lived in Paris, and I became acquainted with the visual art of many parts of the world by visiting galleries and museums there and in other European cities to which we travelled. The fantasies of Hieronymus Bosch, the coloristic innovations of Gauguin and the non-traditional visual conceptions of Picasso particularly appealed to me. I was also deeply moved by African and Oceanic masks in the Paris Musee de I'Homme in the way I am by artworks associated with Korean shamanism. It seemed to me that the artworks of early cultures reflect a common psyche. Upon our arrival in Los Angeles, California, in 1975, I continued to familiarize myself with the ideas, motivations and aesthetic values of various visual artists, and decided to begin making paintings of my own. My first step was to learn about wood carving from my brotherin -law Kwang Up Kim, a well-known Korean callig-·Painter, 57 William Ellery Place, Providence, RI 02904, U.S.A.··Photographer. (Same address as above)···Artist and teacher, Box 85, Rehoboth, MA 02769, U.S.A. (Received 28 Aug. 1979) 219 rapher living in Los Angeles. Then, as I mentioned above, we went in 1976 to Providence. Fig. 1. 'Lonely Faces; Seeking Hands', oil on canvas, 76.2 x 101.6 em, 1979. Fig. 2. 'Myself Looking at Myself', oil on canvas, 101.6 x 76.2 em, 1979. 220 Byong Rye Kim with Bee Mong Kim and David W. Brisson Fig. 3. 'Waiting', oil on canvas, 101.6 x 101.6 cm, 1979. 2. Through color, rhythm and harmony I try in my paintings to interpret such human feelings as happiness, anger, love and pleasure (Figs. 1 to 4). Furthermore, by means of my paintings I wish to transcend death, so that I may accept the approach of my death calmly. If there is a god, then I wish to devote to him my humble mind through my brushes and paints. The act of painting is for me as important as the finished picture and thus only I can really understand them. But, even so, perhaps others will use them as mandalas are used in the Orient to induce a sense of calmness and peace in meditation. The four paintings I have chosen to be reproduced are representative of the works I exhibited in the gallery of Princeton University in 1979. Fig. 4. 'Saturday Night', oil on canvas, 76.2 x 101.6 cm, 1979. ...