The Song of Life between Heaven and Earth described by the Handling of a Brush
- The Pictorial World of Choi Young Jo -
Art Critic, Doctor of Aesthetics Jang Mi Jin
1. The language of life and art - the dream to eternal Utopia
Reviewing the trend and direction of modern art, we find that what has become the main subject of modern artists is not only the expansion of expressional method but also the restoration of humanity through harmony of reason and sensibility and reconciliation with nature. At this time, Choi Young Jo is an artist who has dreamt the reconciliation of human and nature and has consistently depicted the relevant meditation through pictures. Accepting the stylistic change between non-abstract and abstract art, he has pursued the world of modeling, whose direction of artistic intention shows consistency in the restoration of humanity through reconciliation with nature. Born in the village of Kyungbuk, he could personally master the dampness and providence of nature, which served as a momentum for his work. Furthermore, the artistist describes the parts of daily life and its image in the song of life between heaven and earth by interpreting Nature on the basis of Oriental thought of Heaven, Earth and Human. At the point where the language of life is the artistic language, the artist arouses the lost hometown of modern men, i.e., the paradise lost. That is to say, while his pictures, being a form drawn by the handling of brush and a rhythm of color, pierce the reality, they perceive the poetic imagination which dreams the eternal Utopia beyond the reality. In this sense, his works well reflect the creative journey of the artist who has incessantly walked to the point where does exist the high boundary of art that comprises modeling, music and poem, i.e., picture becomes music and poem. Then, there is a need to have a brief look at his creative career as well as the intention and direction of his work in order to understand the artistic value and meaning of his work.
2. Passing over the trap of life in search of liberty - the journey of creation
From the first private exhibition in the middle of 1960s' to the ninth in 2000, the artist has expanded and heightened the expressional realm and even now he is searching the direction of works. At the first exhibition in 1965, the style of works was close to atypical and informal one in which geometrical figures appeared on the black, gray and brown ground. Moreover, he showed works in the type of neo-Dadaism which introduced the existing object such as old shirts or old gloves so as to avoid the abstact and formal canvas. During this period, he searched a way to create new modeling value on the basis of negation toward the existing modeling. Entering 1970s', this searching showed non-abstract works of expressionism in loud color, emphasizing the Matière(F) of watercolors and tone of color. However, dark color was prevalent in this period and gloomy abysmal world was reflected in the contrast of coloration combining with active modeling. It could be said that the passion and conflict of youth trying to pass over the trap of life was connected to the methodical searching in modeling. In 1980s', the artist tried to extrovert his world in active way by managing the canvas in brighter polychromatic coloration and free style. To the extent, he not only shook off the ideality of modern modeling and his mental depression but also maturely made his own optimism and desire for liberty visible. Even though various experiments were still made at this time with regard to material and space in the canvas, the mental inevitability of the artist approaching the expressional method could be seen to be densely squeezed. For instance, dividing the canvas into spaces on two layers, the artist combined the image of heaven, earth, sea and human as well as made them contradictory. Besides, he adapted Nature and the providence of the universe by free handling of brush and graphic figure, passing over all shapes. As seen in the abstract expressionism, manifestation of internal sentiments and eruption of watercolor energy could be seen. On the other hand, an effort to adapt the confrontation and reconciliation of heaven, earth and human in the universal modeling language could be also seen. We could apparently see the part of Oriental artistic thought, which regards the relation between heaven, earth and human or between light and darkness not as confrontation but as unification. Therefore, by filtering the shapes of nature, some works in this period approached the figure of mandala which visualized the essence of universe. Since 1990s', the artist not only has manifested the reconciliation of nature and human without being limited by the stylistic non-abstract and abstact frame but also has introduced the daily image of life and expressed the longing for ideal world and the awe on life in free and implicit modeling.
Especially, the image of sea and woman which has been consistently expressed including the series of Heaven and Earth and the generous management of blank, agile touch of brush, bright and limpid color etc.; these factors have already left his works in the mind of appreciators firmly and persistently by particular sensibility and color vision. So the recent works could be regarded as a fruit of creative journey which has pursued the liberty in the art, passing over the bonds and trap of life. Now painter, Mr. Choi is acknowledged as an artist who has already acquired the style and personality of appreciators in the motive of works, material and formality and expressional method.
3. The phase, artistic value and direction of work
There is a need to review his work as mental traces of the above creative journey to see what value it has in more positive phase. For this purpose, its meaning and direction will be reviewed in some items.
First, in the light of work motive and ideology of the artist, his work is based on the Confucian and Taoistic outlook on the universe which could be said to be harmony of nature and human, namely, humanization of nature and naturalization of human. The ideology of this artist seems to be closer to Oriental artistic thought even though he uses materials of Occidental pictures such as acryl or oil colors. The canvas in which heaven, sea, earth, human and daily image of life combine and float reveals the boundary in itself which comprises the essence of life and human mental image. Being always the material for his pictures, the sea represents the beauty of Nature in the purest coloration and fantasy. And keeping all bonds of life in the horizon, the sea always delivers the providence of nature in the overwhelming silence. To the artist, this image of sea is formed as a symbol that suggests the ideal toward eternal Utopia. The artist sings life and love with his own optimism, passing over the various experiments and dark color during adolescence and gradually moving toward management of canvas with generous blank and brilliant and bright color. Utopia is the boundary of U and Topos which do not exist in reality. Therefore, all artists long for it on the contrary. The artistic intention of Choi Young Jo is not high-toned, pedantic or ideal, but oriented to elevate the real life through dream toward Utopia.
Second, the artist has carried out searching for various expressional method and experiments in modeling at the same time in embodying the above idea. Especially, excluding the dichotomous thought of non-abstract and abstract art, the artist has commanded various expressional method such as manifestation of abstract, legal and universal world image, exposition of expressionistic sensibility and anti-concrete work in which daily images such as natural image, person and object positive, etc. are positively revealed. Considering that style or technique as expressional method depends on the inevitability of idea, the works have virtually maintained consistency so far. Furthermore, he has densely expressed his artistic intention by carrying out various experiments on materials and media at the same time and commanding various media such as oil color, acryl, watercolor, cutting off and fixing color paper, cloth object and wide coloring by paint brush or pouring, spraying and spreading colors or scraping with knife or scratching method.
Third, his pictures embodied by this idea and searching for method make appreciators feel the pleasure and glee of life with its own for formality and color sense. Especially, the series of Heaven and Earth born in 1990s' properly command the dream of Utopia, combining the expression of self-consciousness and harmony of natural image, fantasy and reality, boundary between the original image of the cosmos and reality. As the parent of inception of life and creation, water has image which is probably symbolic and mythologic. As a matter of fact, the artist visits sea around the world to work on the spot. The color tone of cobalt blue and marine blue that seemingly springs up out of his pictures gives vividness which deeply moves the heart of appreciators.
Fourth, the lifelikeness of brush touch felt in his pictures is due to not only the work on the spot but also his working method in the studio.
Sometimes he lays 50 canvas on the flood of studio and works on them simultaneously. Then, usually listening to music, he extempore puts multitudinous on them. As if color erupts with rhythm, he colors the mental idea and natural image at the same time with hadling of brush in one time. To him, music, poem and picture are not separate, but unified.
Besides, the silhouette of heaven, sea, mountain and women is mutually intermixed. So a silhouette once seen as mountain at a glance is proved to be that of the body of a woman. Likewise, sea turns heaven and the face of a woman. In his canvas, nature and human is unified.
In this point, a rhythmical story of life displays itself predicatively on the music in bright color. While some part of the canvas turns interior with fruit dish or vase, other is felt to be the cosmic chaos before the generation of the universe. In this way, his pictures expand the plane space of the canvas into the fantastic one that transcends daily time and space, which deserves an evaluation that he properly commands idea.
Finally, though reviewing such personality of the artist and artistic value and significance of the work, there is one disappointing point ; sometimes the visible and deliberate factor impedes the delivery of overall tone of works. Especially, among the silhouette of persons, that of face is described repeatedly, causing mannerism and feeling of design and diminishing freedom and vividness of brush touch.
In some sense, it would be better if he had deepened the aftermeaning and aftertaste by bleaching the images more and managing the ground space in refreshing blank. This is because I feel that the colors in the system of green and violet in his pictures could be capable of carrying out the rhythm and aftertaste with just a few lines and surfaces. In the long run, his pictures are both the products of contemplation and meditation on human and nature, and portrait which holds innocent love for liberal humaneness and living things. For this reason, the song of life between heaven and earth sung along with his brush is shared by all of us.
