Page 269 - 강화산의 작품세계

Hwasaan, Kang - Incidental Dominion in Life
Hwasaan, Kang - Incidental Dominion in Life
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Kws0214 우연의 지배-고기잡이, 캔버스에 혼합재료, 112x112.1cm, 1991
An attempt to unite the percep-
tion of nature with inner inspir-
ation of the artist
Lee Seok-Wood(professor of
Kyunhee Univeristy, Ph.D.)

Rain of the night sometimes makes the whole
world a humid silence. It is in such an atmo-
sphere that the serious face of Kang Gu-Won
occurs to me. His rented desolate atelier
nearby the Kwangrung tree garden must be
drenched. For arists who bet their futures on
unpromising canvases, delight and frustration
must be much more intense.

Kang Gu-Won is no exception. What I have
felt from his paintings is that he earnestly
gropes the reach the truth he wants. Con-
verting from figurative to abstract, using
objets on cnavases, and other techniques of
sprinkling, erasing, scratching and tearing off
are the traits of his agony to reach the truth.

<Incidental Dominion in Life - Fishing> here intorduced also reflects his seriousness on reconstructing the feeling that
nature renders in his inner world. Blue color dominates the canvas. The artist mashed the white on the right, and even added
a red touch to make the blue look better. The yellow figure on the upper left makes the cnavas stable and has an effect of
emphasizing the blue tone.

This is the painting of a school of minnows playing absentmindedly in a clear and tranpaent stream. Minnows not painted
concretely are expressed in sparse dark brown. It reflects the artist’s thought that a painting without concrete form has
stronger appeal. He thinks that it is possible to render a natural object or a thing into a simple face or a color.
Two ovals looking like footprints on the upper left is a metaphore of man. The footsteps elaborately keep out the minnows
and it shows Kang Gu-Won’s awe and
cherishment of nature and life. In such a context this painting expresses the artist’s aspiration to clear water and a healthy
life. Man, who has to breathe and drink 2-2.5 liters of water daily is an organism, 70% of whose body is domposd of water.
Therefore without water, man cannot survive.

The artist cherishes the deep connection between a cnavas and its artist. It is because he believes that a painting without
connection with the artist cannot be empathized by others. He also thinks that there are things one can and cannot do in a
painting. He who considers the latter as a fortuity thinks that the fortuity is in a large sense an inevitability and an order. So
he introduces fortuitous elements into his serious painting with his last stroke. It could be understood as a finishing stroke
done in a state of self-effacement and ultra-concentration. It is in a sense also a concentration of spirit. It is not an exagger-
ation to say that his painting depends on the last stroke. In this painting the red touch looks to be it.
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