Po Kim: Abstraction Beyond Borders (1955-1970)

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Together and Apart, 1969-70, Oil on Canvas, 60 x 72 inches

A b s t r a c t ion B e yond B or der s , 1955 -1970

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Abstraction Beyond Border s 1955-1970

M a rch 1 1 - M ay 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 O p e n i n g Re c e p t i o n Fr i d a y, M a rch 1 1 6 : 0 0 - 8 : 0 0 C u r a t e d by D r. M a r s h a l l N. P r i c e

Abstract 236 1961-62 Oil on Paper 18.5 x 24 inches

Abstract Expressionism, the most dominant artistic movement to emerge in the U.S. after World War II, has typically been characterized as the first truly “American” school of art. No longer reliant on European precedents, and ostensibly embodying the freedoms of post-war America, it has been articulated by critics and art historians as “An American-Type Painting,” “American Action Painting,” and “The Triumph of American Painting”. The movement was much more international than is generally understood, however, and it was a crucible of creativity for many international artists. These artists brought with them a diversity of backgrounds, training, languages, cultures, and predilections, all of which combined to create a much richer and more nuanced history of the movement than is generally understood.

Cantor 1955-56 Oil on Linen 40 x 50 inches

Po Kim’s long career provides an illuminating look at the transcultural nature of mid-century abstraction in the United States. Born in Changnyung, Kyung-nam, Korea in 1917, Po (Po-Hyun) Kim had already established himself in his home country by the time he immigrated to the United States in 1955. Like many Korean artists of his generation, he studied in Japan at the Pacific Arts School, where he followed a Western-style curriculum of drawing from plaster casts before being allowed to draw and paint from live models. After several years of study and following World War II, Po Kim returned to Korea and established the art department at Chosun University in Gwangju. He would teach there for nearly a decade, but soon after the end of the Korean War, the artist left his home country and would not return for more than three decades. He would ultimately settle in New York City in 1957, at the moment when Abstract Expressionism was at its peak.

Prior to his arrival in New York, Po Kim spent two years at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign on a fellowship. At that moment, Chicago was undergoing its own aesthetic transition as younger abstract artists were challenging the establishment of surrealist-inspired figurative painting.

Po Kim absorbed the quasi-abstraction that characterized much of the work in Chicago, and thus,

Unttled _1958_02 1958 Oil on Linen 60 x 72 inchess

this exhibition begins with one of the few surviving works from this period, Cantor, a curious mix of figurative and abstract elements. After completing his M.F.A. in Illinois, the artist moved to New York where he found himself amidst the exhilirating environment of Abstract Expressionism. Po Kim quickly assimilated the movement’s lessons and developed a highly nuanced and personal style of gestural abstraction that, while indebted to the New York School, maintained a discernable connection to his own cultural heritage.

Abstract Expressionism When Po Kim arrived in New York in 1957, Abstract Expressionism was a fully mature artistic movement that was entering its final chapter. He immediately adopted the gestural brushstroke that most identifiably characterized the movement. His early paintings document both the stylistic diversity of the movement and its intrinsic internationalism. These early works range from slashing and frenetic brushstrokes, to dripped and poured compositions, to his ethereal stain-like more of a cultural

phenomenon that reflected some of the anxieties and attitudes of post-war America. The movement was also much more international and transcultural than is typically recognized. Artists such as Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Milton Resnick as well as many others, including Po Kim, had emigrated from other countries, bringing with them various attitudes and inclinations specific to their cultural heritage. For Po Kim, after living through Japanese colonization and imprisonment and torture during the Korean War, Abstract Expressionism offered him an outlet through which he could confront many of these existential issues.

Series and the Calligraphic Brush Many of Po Kim’s works on paper were done in series. He had followed both a Western and Eastern course of study that included traditional calligraphy and thus, he immediately recognized the calligraphic-like brushstroke that was the hallmark of many Abstract Expressionist painters. The study of calligraphy is a life-long exercise and requires the repeated movement of hand and brush.

Like calligraphy, Po Kim executed countless works on paper that exhibit a similar dedication to repetition and subtle adaptations of movement. The following works on paper are a sampling of how Po Kim worked and illustrate his commitment to repetitive actions. Instead of laboring over them, Po Kim worked with the immediacy of a “one-go” type of approach, rooted in his Eastern calligraphic training. Unlike many of his American peers, who would create studies in preparation for larger paintings, he considered these smaller works finished compositions in their own right.

The Late 1960s

Abstract 412, 1961-62, Oil on Paper, 9 x 12 inches

By the mid-1960s, the American aesthetic inclination shifted away from the abstraction of the previous decade and toward a more colorful and less frenetic style. Abstract Expressionism was eclipsed by a series of new movements including Pop Art, Minimalism,

Abstract circle 3, 1967-68, Oil on Linen, 36 x 36 inches

and Color Field painting. During this time, Po Kim lived in Paris for one year, and after he returned to New York in 1966, his paintings began to illustrate several important stylistic developments including a much brighter palette, larger areas of unmodulated color, and a de-emphasizing of the gestural brushstroke that was a hallmark of his earlier work.

The central abstract form seen in his Abstract Circle series as well as his related paintings Together and Apart and Untitled became prominent. In these works the pigment is applied to the canvas using a stain-like technique reminiscent of Color Field artists such as Helen Frankenthaler and Ken Noland.

His work from this period suggested a reconciliation with some of the trauma he had suffered in the 1940s and 50s, through the imagery and titles of this new work.

Conclusion After a circuitous route that took him to Japan, back to Korea, and susbsequently to Illinois, Po Kim eventually arrived in New York at a serendipitous moment in the late-1950s. It was a moment of great experimentation in painting, often characterized as an American ascendency. Indeed, by this time, New York City had supplanted Paris as the artistic center of the Western world, but it was not limited to a cast of American nationals but filled with an array of international artists. Only relatively recently have scholars begun to examine larger dynamics of this period through an international lens. It is in this context that Po Kim may be understood. As one of the few Korean artists, and indeed perhaps the only Korean Abstract Expressionist in New York, his work serves as an important example of the intrinsic internationalism and distinct cultural nuances of the movement.

Untitled_1967-1968_02, 1967-68, Oil on Canvas, 72 x 60 inches

Untitled, 1959-65, Oil on Cotton, 72 x 60 inches

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The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery 417 Lafayette Street, 4th Floor New York, NY 10003 (212) 598-1155