Recently, we often witness a number of painters
who makes a sketch excursion ti the mountain. It becomes more common in
culturally advanced nations as a reaction abstract art in which it's increasingly
hard to find any artistic satisfaction to fulfill our basic instinct. Today's
human civilization becomes possible at expense of nature but paradoxically,
we are now seeking the salvation of nature. A landscape, in terms of technique
and aesthetic, grows more diverse and profound due to such trend.
To my joy, Chung Eui-boo also attains such level
of landscape painting.
Generally speaking, the term landscape painting has its origin in Western
painting. We also have our own landscape picture, which is distinctively
called a mountain-and-water drawing. Ours is quite different from a Western
landscape in its color, but remains same with it in its approach to nature.
Chung Eui-boo, I think, knows it better than anyone else in that his picture
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demonstrates a distinctive color scheme and
unrestricted spatial arrangement.
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It is assumed that all types of landscape painting
were originated from the notion of "paradise" which we
have long since sought to discover. The word "paradise"is
known to have a Farsi origin. It first appeared in the 12th century China
ahead of the West. A longing for paradise also made the 18th century's European
romanticist artists be engrossed in landscape.
The British art critic K.Clark defined an outstanding landscape painting
is the one that makes the viewer mistake they are in a real landscape. It
means a landscape is an art genre that makes people feel an impulse to rush
into it. As Choi Buk, one of Joseon's painters in the 18th century felt
an impulse to suicide while sketching Mt. Keumgang, we also feel such impulse
when we view Chung's landscapes. His landscape work appears so seductive
to the viewers in its color and space, evoking an illusory effect.
Immanuel Kant once alluded to the following: "Nature is nothing
but an enlarged human nude.
<¼±ÂøÀå> 65 x 91cm À¯È
If one assimilates into nature, he must have
a capability to look at her with an eye of childlike purity rather than
avarice." A good ladnscape is the one in which the subject and
the object become nearly one, narrowing their gaps by the use of color
and pigment. As our body is a reduction of nature, we have an ability
to identify ourselves with nature in order to render an outstanding landscape.
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Such is nat a thoroughly new approach in Oriental painting in which paper
and ink are utilized, instead of oil in Western painting. Chung Eui-boo
through his oil painting attempts to come true Oriental aesthetic by uniquely
quoting the beauty of subtlety from a mountain-and-water picture. The
artist Ahn Young-mok at his catalogue essay point out it as follows: In
a recent few years Chung has often employed achromatic colors for his
oil painting. Refrain from various natural hues, his work is suggestive
of a Korean-style mountain-and water drawing using an achromatic color.
I regard his picture as a remarkable attempt to inspire a distinctively
Korean atmosphere.
As Ahn pointed out properly, Chung interprets
the beauty of subtlety in a contemporary way, whereas Korean painter attains
it with the use of blank space and blotting effect. He also strategically
adopts backlighting to make his work coincide with the taste of contemporary
people. Backlighting is immensely effective in giving an illusory feeling
and marking clarity something obscure. Such effect of backlighting quite
naturally diminishes the reality of his painting by getting rid of the shadow
of objects.
It is as if his painting strives to comment on the fact that paradise no
longer exists in the three-dimensional reality. His painting gradually becomes
two-dimensional by removing the shadow. Chung proclaims his attachment to
two dimensionality is an attempt to become a seeker of beauty and leads
his illusion to the world of silence.
A dominant shade of gray on his canvas is a strong
message suggestive of silence. His achromatic color scheme is in no way
light-hearted. His color, in term of texture, surely has the mass.
As widely known to all, something primitive played an igniting role in starting
the new. For example, African Primitive Art, affecting Europe's Classicism,
dedicated to creating experimental works in later art history. Chung's color
scheme employing heavy and strong impasto indicates, in a broad sense, he
is following a tendency of contemporary art. Refrain from clinging to so-called
"Paradise Complex" he strategically adopts his color and,
thereby leads our sensibilities to an enhanced state.
Association
* Served as a jury for National Sketch Competition of Korea
* Served as a part-time teacher for Yoido High School, Kyungbok High School,
Kyunghee University and Kyungwon University
* Served as a the first director of Songpa Fine Arts Association
* Served as a the director of Hyundai Sketch Group
Present
* Advisor of Hyundai Sketch Group, Songpa Fine Arts Association
* Member of Korean Fine Arts Association, Sanghyung Artists Group
INSEA and Asian Art Friendship Group
* Part-time Instructor of Shinsegye Culture Cente
* Conferred a MFA by Hong-Ik University Graduate School of Fine Arts
* 11Times Solo Exhibition
* Severed as Director of International Association for Art Education for
and Research
* Participated INSEA General Meeting and International seminar on art
education
* Sketch tour to Southeast Asian countries, America, Tahiti, New Zealand,
Pacific-rim countries
* Awarded at the 25th and 26th National Art Exhibition of Korea
* Served as a planning committee member for Korean Fine Arts Association
* Many times Group Exhibition