Page 5 - 이군우 초대전 2023. 3. 13 – 3. 25 아트갤러리라포애

The High and Old Fashioned Wonder of Apricot Blossoms

Setting the new value of novel creativity that is internalized within.

- Hak-gyoon Seon (Honorary Professor, Catholic Kwandong University)

Artist Goon-woo Lee , a Korean painter, acquired the Jinchehwa deep-colored painting through devotion to one’s heart and soul. It was
inflowed from China before King Sukjon of the Joseon Dynasty and remains as traditional painting for a few hundred years.
Recent Korean paintings materializes a general trend while savoring one era which is a very desirable phenomenon and an
encouraging affair. As a result, his use of the ink-and-wash painting demonstrates the factual style of painting as objective and as an
orthodox faction coloring affiliate that is academic. It is very aristocratic and evokes the splendidness of beauty. In Korean painting, the
intention to express symbolically by alluding the thoughts and emotions of human beings in nature is an ordinary phenomenon that
metaphorically represents the Four Gracious Paints. Hence, in order to underst and Korean painting, it is critical to understand such
symbolisms and the perspective on nature.

In the apricot flower painting where the motive forms the mainstream on his screen, the Chwisangsol theory of preference is
established by modelling after the reasons of taegeuk, yin and yang, the Five Elements, etc. All of the universe’s images are depicted
in the apricot flower. Specifically, the theory indicates there are enormously different shapes, an eloquence (the account of a flower
coming out), and ten species (the order of the trees coming out) in a picture. One can presume the reason behind him choosing the
theory of preference being to understand the reasons of the universe and nature. The profound naturalistic philosophy which can be
discovered in an apricot flower is interpreted as a domain expansion of his novel thoughts. Accordingly, his artwork exhibition this
time around attracts many appreciators and is summarized as his 「novel idea and the setting of the values of independent creativity」.
If the screen seen in his formative world is comprehensively analyzed, mostly, it can be organized as follows:
First, he reminds you of a fully-blossomed apricot flowers and the grayish-blue-powdered celadon, a representative handcraft of the
Joseon Dynasty, in front of an old-fashioned window. The celadon instigates an ambience similar to 「The feast of the apricot flower,
which is the messenger of spring」 seen on a screen that shows fog clumped up and haze unleashed. The form that blossoms through
the many forms of the apricot flower’s transformation creates harmony with the inner world within the mind of the artist. As a result,
the form of a big flower leaf unfolded by closing up the small branch of the apricot flower and the iljimae brings out differentiated
and mysterious charm. Also, the topic of conversation from the artworks by Lee Goon-woo touches on the freewheeling form of the
apricot flower branch and how the fully-blossomed flowers look original due to the screen display that adopts the atmosphere of the
「group dance dancing above big land」 even in the early spring snow.

Second, his method of brush stroke and Chinese ink embraces the gureuk method characteristic of painting the background consistent
to the atmosphere without empty space. The entire atmosphere of the screen entices the eyes of an observer by interspersing the
feeling of tension and relaxation. It is a well-known fact that collectively, plants that did not outwardly show human emotions that
are possessed by flowers had been called “noble men” by old, good people. Among the Four Gracious Plants, the apricot flowers are
especially considered to be material possessing the function of character development that can adjust the temperament of the mind
and change the disposition of the human being. Having apricot flower as his theme shows not only the 「unique, true value of authentic
painting」, but also the formative beauty of his independent screen extremely clear. Hence, the screen that has the rhythm of fully
bloomed apricot flowers by matching the round moon, the platform for crocks of sauces and condiments, the daegeum, the grayish-
blue-powdered celadon, etc., where the emotions and spirit of Koreans are inherent is thought to stem from his ‘「happiness inside
strong fidelity and calm endurance」.
I have great expectations that his world of art will be decorated as a new page in the history of Korean art by a younger art historian in
the distant future and hope for this to come to pass.