Page 6 - 안말금 CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ 2002-2019

The World of An Mal Gum's Painting Works

The unorthodox beauty of a unique form

- Shin Hang Seop (Fine art critic)

An Mal-Gum was entirely attracted by the painting works of Vincent van Gogh while she began to study the drawings directly with eagerness.
She confided she could not suppress papitaing heart with excitement whenever she watches the drawing works of Gogh and from the early of her
drawing career, she admired the works of Gogh so passionately.
Therefore, we can find the clue for those apparent characteristics of the beauty of dynamic which appears from the most works of An Mal-Gum
from the works of Vincent van Gogh. Of course, in comparison with works of Gogh, her works shows on visual image which is apparentely differenty
with such of Gogh’s works. Receiving the inspiration related to the formation from the works of Gogh, An Mal-Gum could have made the formative
characteristics of her works’ own which is different with the technique of Gogh.
The work of the artist An Mal-Gum is being divided with the figure drawing and the still-life drawing. In the interpretation of the figure of flowers
or trees, the rhythmic feeling of line of twisted and winding attracts the eyes of the viewers. This may be called as the non-formative interpetation of
figures. The stemsof flowers shows on the figures of winding, as if they dance. This is the very individual langauge of formation that te artist An Mal-
Gum has created through the expression style of deformation or distortion of the figure. And the viewers can sense and feel visual pleasure from this
artist’s works that they can not find and feel from the realistic figures.
Series of works of An Mal-Gum such as <Lily>, and <Sorghum field>, <Dreaming tree> and <Thistle> and such formative variation remind us
the pleasant feelings. The rhythmical sense of figure which looks like dance is nothing else but the magic of formation that the artist An Mal-Gum
has serched and found with her unique sense of beauty. Filling even the background with touch of dynamic image, the whole space of drawing is
overflowing with the sense of vivid feeling of motion and dynamism.
In her figure drawings, An Mal-Gum used the relatively moderate sense of formation and so they are stable in visual. Her works of figure drawing
shows on the strong character of story telling drawing as not of the portrait style but as the person and the scenery are staying in the harmony. One
scene of one moment related to the memory of her early days of young girl is being expressed as fairy tale or inherited old tale in her drawings.
The work of expressing a girl who is walking with white goat together putting fruit basket on her head shows us an exquiste harmony between
scenery and figure. Such spatial expression which reveales the perspectiev very well through yellow winding village road is very effective to show us
the feeling of existence of person. We can feel the alive and vivid sense of dynamism from the figure of girl with skirt fluttering by the wind.
As the figure of girl and winding village road are moving back, all figures of mountain and church and sky as the distant view is being expressed
dynamically. Hence, the spirit of dynamism appears from the drawing itself is full in the surface of painting. When we meet with the works of the
artist An Mal-Gum, we feel as if the brigh and cheerful and dynamic spirit is flowing into our heart.
During last several years, the artist An Mal-Gum had begun to draw the religion painting related the personal belief for Christianity. Her painting is
the religious testimony that she puts her feelings she had through the meditaion on words of God and worship into the paintings.
As series of title of works like <Adam and Eve>, <Child Jesus and St. Mary> and <Passion of Jesus> suggest us, they are the pictures of sacred
subjects which embody the life of Jesus. The pesons appering in the works of the artist An Mal-Gum don’t have the faces of persons of the place
where Jesus Christ was born at but the faces of persons that she can see in her space of reallife. To say in one word, she is replacing them with the
faces of Korean. Maybe this is so natural conclusion to her. This is because Jesus Christ is not a person of any particular region or era to her but it is the
person who exists in reality where she lives in. The existence of Jesus Christ is the spiritual object which transcends the time and the space, the artist
An Mal-Gum accepts him not only with heart but also accets him as the existance of living in the space of her life too.
Her holy paintings follow the order of the formal style of the portrait the artist deploys the figure of person in center of painting but they are
equipped with the style of religion firmly by deploying series of symblic images of Christianity like lily, pigeon and fishes in side area.
Differently with the works of most of painters, the painting works of the artist An Mal-Gum are very unqiue and beautiful and strong. The art of An
Mal-Gum is something which is full of rhythm and energy and is overflowing with the force of life.
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