Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan

About this artwork

Born in Sinuji, Korea, in 1937, Kim Chong Hak first worked as an abstract painter in the 1960s and ultimately rejected the adoption of Western-style abstraction, which he viewed as a response to national melancholy brought on by previous decades of hardship and deprivation. In the late 1970s, he settled in Gangwon Province in eastern South Korea and home of Mount Seorak—the highest peak in the country’s Taebaek mountain range. There, he sought out an alternative artistic discourse, moving away from the monochromatic painting popular in Korea of the time and toward his own unabashedly expressive style. Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan features works that span the arc of Kim’s long career and present an aspect of Korean art from the late 20th century that is little known outside of South Korea. Featured artworks include Kim’s drawings and sketchbooks from the 1970s to the present, including a group of recent botanical studies on Korean hanji paper (made from mulberry bark), and an introductory biographical video by award-winning filmmakers Jung Dawoon and Kim Jongshin of Giraffe Pictures. https://phxart.org/exhibition/kim-chong-hak-painter-of-seoraksan/