LEE Kang-So

To say that Lee Kang So’s works always have a start is also to say that there is only a start, lacking process and completion. Considering that painting on a canvas implies completion, Lee’s works always aim for incompletion. An incomplete painting is only possible while it is still in the process, but Lee daringly offers this as a state of completion. Is this not a paradox in that it aims to be not drawn while being drawn at the same time? Is this even possible? Lee’s works are not born as a resulting objective being and lie somewhere between process and completion, in other words, exist somewhere between what is drawn and what is being drawn, then could it not be said that this assumption is the very reason for the existence of his works?

The experimental works from Lee’s early days include the tavern which opened for a week in the Myeongdong Gallery in Seoul in 1973, and the exhibition at the Paris Biennale in 1975 where a rooster tied to a stake created a circle on white powder. Though the art medium and circumstance of these works are completely different from the canvas paintings of today, there is an interesting similarity in that the process was incorporated into the work. We can no longer see the perplexity on the faces of those that walked into the tavern within the gallery, but we can still witness people standing in front of Lee’s works and tilting their heads, wondering if the work is unfinished. Just as those that walked into the tavern did not fully accept the fact that they were a part of the work, people do not realize that the very act of standing in front of the painting is one of the elements leading to the completion of the work.

The images in Lee’s works may be limited, but there is a rich selection of images – duck, deer, boat, mountain, house, and cloud appear continuously. The images are right in the space between what is drawn and what is being drawn, to be better described not as being drawn but as being placed on the painting in the moment. So all beings exist not in full maturity but in their incomplete state of being created. It displays a much more novel approach than the deictic or objective state of existence, not to mention the extraordinary moment of birth.

The expression “being created” rather than “drawn” implies breaking out of the frame, or the flat surface of the work. In a non-closed surface, the work is placed within an open space, or the universe. A space where massive dark clouds cover the skies above, and a flock of ducks grace the waters down below. Lightning and thunder will strike and heavy rain will fall any minute. Such passion and complacency, turbulence and calmness, and part and whole create a balance in the massiveness of the universe.

The originality of Lee Kang So’s expression is inherent in the suggestive rise of all beings flickering in the work. This suggestive expression refers to no other than the depiction of the image using the stroke. The rapid stroke of the brush perfectly befits the suggestive rise of the image. The duck, deer and cloud are just a trace of the stroke before they become duck, deer, and cloud. Before they take the form of a being, they are just a form of stroke drawn freely. Thus Lee’s paintings can also be considered writings. They aim to be in a state where writing and painting are not distinguished. Painting and calligraphy have long been considered the one and the same, from the same roots but with different names. Perhaps Lee’s paintings are faithful to this belief. So the image rise as a situation rather than a description, and the writing rise as an energy that fills the entire work rather than a simple gesture.

In artist Lee Il Wha’s discussion on paintings, It is said that “In drawing an object, acquiring description is no better than acquiring form, and acquiring writing is no better than acquiring grace.” The same can be said of works of Lee Kang So, characterized by the fact that it aims for form over description and grace over writing.

<Between What is Drawn and What is Being Drawn-On the Works of Lee Kang So>
Oh Kwang Soo
Art critic

LEE Kang-So
Born in 1943, Daegu, Korea

EDUCATION
1965 Painting Dept., College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITION
2016 Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-EtienneMétropole, Saint-Etienne, France
2015 Wooson Gallery, Daegu, Korea
2011 Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea
2010 JOY ART Gallery, Beijing, China
2009 Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea
2006 Musée des Arts Asiatique, Nice, France
2005 WHITE BOX, New York, USA
2002 Le Palais des Congrés de Paris, Paris, France

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITION
2016 KM9346: Korea-Morbihan 9,346km, Kerguehennec Museum, France
2015 Korean Painting, Beyond the Borders, Cultural Station 284, Seoul, Korea
2014 Korean Beauty: Two Kinds of Nature, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
2014 Between the Lines: Korean Contemporary Art since 1970, ARARIO Gallery, Cheonan, Korea
2012-13 A Bigger Splash: Painting after Performance, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom
2012 Dansaekhwa: Korean Monochrome Painting, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
2012 Korean Painting Now, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, Taichung, Taiwan
2011 Tell me Tell me: Australian and Korean Art 1976-2011, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea/Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia