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| The nonagenarian "dansaekhwa" (monochrome painting) master Chung Sang-hwa / Courtesy of the artist, Gallery Hyundai |
By Park Han-sol
To the nonagenarian "dansaekhwa" (monochrome painting) master Chung Sang-hwa, it is the "foolishly endless repetition of ripping off and filling in" layers of clay and paint on canvas that brings his signature "grid" paintings to life.
"Performing the same action over and over again to the point of absurdity, that's what defines my work," he remarked at Gallery Hyundai in central Seoul, where some 40 of his pieces from the 1970s to 2019 are on view, tracing his decades-long journey toward meditative abstraction.
The gallery's show, entitled "Infinite Breath," comes two years after his all-encompassing retrospective mounted at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA).
Chung initially made a foray into highly gestural, expressionist Art Informel in the 1950s and 1960s in the aftermath of the 1950-53 Korean War. It was after his move to Kobe, Japan in 1969 that he undertook his search for new stylistic experimentation.
The artist started by slowly draining off the colors from the canvas, allowing him to explore the varied shades of white. But that wasn't enough; he soon felt the need to add his own touch of dynamism and sense of depth to the flat, monochrome surface.
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| Chung Sang-hwa's "Untitled 81-2-21" (1981), left, and "Untitled 2019-10-15" (2019) / Courtesy of the artist, Gallery Hyundai |
His signature technique begins with coating the entire canvas with a mixture of kaolin clay and water. Once the thick liquid dries up, the painter draws grid patterns on the back of the canvas and folds the whole fabric horizontally, vertically and diagonally along those lines. He then peels off the dried clay from the surface, which is based on the grid marks, and fills in the space with layers of acrylic paint.
This labor-intensive process of "ripping off" and "filling in" is repeated until Chung finds a perfect harmony "with nothing more to add or take away," according to the show's curator Hannah Kim.
The paintings are thus a tactile record of all the invisible elements that went into creating them ― from the artist's every bodily movement and gesture to the long hours spent waiting and repeating the action.
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| Chung Sang-hwa's "Untitled 12-5-13" (2012), left, and "Process-5" (2017) / Courtesy of the artist, Gallery Hyundai |
As he dedicated himself to mastering the technique, he eventually reintroduced a limited palette of colors like red, blue, black and silver to his pieces, bringing in a new level of visual energy for the viewers.
In addition to following a decades-long evolution of Chung's grid works on canvas, the exhibition brings to light his continued formal experimentation with different mediums, notably paper and "hanji" (traditional Korean paper made from native mulberry trees).
On view is his hanji collage, "Untitled" (1987), where he created a dynamic sense of depth by stacking layers of paper and partially peeling them off while sewing grid patterns onto them. There is also a set of frottage pieces, which involved rubbing the paper with graphite against the rugged surface of his own canvas works to make lasting impressions.
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| Chung Sang-hwa's "Untitled" (1987), left, and "Untitled" (1979) / Courtesy of the artist, Gallery Hyundai |
At the age of 91, Chung finds it more and more difficult to paint and fold canvases like the old days when he would spend up to five hours without interruption. He feels his physical limitations every time he lifts his hands to hold a brush only to see them immediately drop back.
But he still continues to work solo without the aid of any assistant. "I don't allow anyone to stand next to me when I'm toiling away, not even my own daughter. My work can only be born when I am alone," he said.
"I have been painting for seven decades, but there is no end to this creative pursuit. I am still not finished with it and will not be anytime soon."
"Infinite Breath" runs through July 16 at Gallery Hyundai.
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| Installation view of Chung Sang-hwa's solo exhibition, "Infinite Breath," at Gallery Hyundai in central Seoul / Courtesy of the artist, Gallery Hyundai |
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