Kim Whanki, Painter of Korean Beauty
Kim Whanki, one of the most beloved Korean artists, is considered the leading figure in the first generation of Korean Abstract  painters. He is more than just that, however. All his life, he devoted himself to discovering the essence of Korean beauty. Moreover, he was a man who never ceased to challenge himself and grow as an artist.
 
Kim Whanki was born in 1913, on a small island in South Jeolla Province. During the Japanese occupation, he spent most of his  adolescent years in Seoul and then studied painting in Japan. It was during this time that he became familiar with new trends in  Western art, including Abstract painting. After Korea achieved its independence from Japan, he became both a promising painter and respected professor at an art college in Seoul.
 
When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he went to Busan for safety. His paintings Shanty and Refugee Train portrayed the hard life of the common people during wartime. However, these paintings are not depressing images. Bright colors and simple lines show hope for life among people who did not give in to their difficult circumstances.

Returning to Seoul after the war, Kim Whanki felt a strong desire to capture the essence of the beauty found in traditional  Korean art. He collected old Korean paintings and pottery. He especially loved large white porcelain moon jars. When he was  asked why moon jars attracted him so much, he said, "Korean jars have broadened my idea of beauty. The jars are like curious  textbooks for my paintings." Along with jars, he often included mountains, plum blossoms, and the moon as subjects in his  paintings. Paintings like Jars and Plum Blossoms and Jar and Moon represent his love of Korean pottery and other traditional  objects. At the time, his painting style was semi-abstract; viewers could see certain forms in his paintings although the objects were simplified.

By the early 1950s, although Kim Whanki had become successful as an artist, he was not satisfied with being an outstanding painter only within Korea. In 1956, he resigned from the college and went to Paris, where he lived for three years. He concentrated on delivering the beauty of traditional Korean objects on canvas to the people of France. During this period, objects were given more simplified shapes, and his art became more abstract. In his famous work Song of Eternity, he included natural objects from the sipjangsaeng, the 10 symbols of eternal life, such as water, stones, mountains, clouds, and pine trees. It was praised by art critics for combining Asian concepts and ideals with abstraction.
 
Kim Whanki returned to Seoul in 1959 and quickly regained his fame as a prominent artist. In 1963 at the age of 50, he became the first Korean artist to be invited to the São Paulo Art Biennale in Brazil. Meeting artists from all over the world and seeing their works, he decided to go directly from São Paulo to New York to challenge himself and extend his artistic boundaries.
 
Life in New York was not easy. In the beginning, he received negative reviews from critics. Once an art dealer lied to him and sold his paintings without paying him. On another occasion, a group of paintings were lost during an exhibition. With loneliness and financial difficulty, he tried to find a way to survive in New York as an artist.
 
During his 11 years in New York, Kim Whanki's style eventually reached complete abstraction. He gradually took away figures and filled his canvases with basic elements such as dots and lines. His masterpiece, completed in 1970, Where, in What Form, Shall We Meet Again?, is covered with thousands of blue dots. The title was taken from a famous poem by Kim Kwangsup, which is about looking at the stars and longing for loved ones. Kim Whanki explained, "The dots are the faces of all my friends in Korea. The faces I was longing for became the stars in my mind and the dots in my painting." Starting with that work, he began to use only dots and created his own unique style called "dot painting." In dot paintings, he filled big canvases with countless dots. Most of these paintings were in his characteristic blue tones, which represented the color of the sea near his hometown.
 
 
In the Evening
Kim Kwangsup

Of all those numerous stars, one in particular looks down upon me.
Of all these countless people, my eyes are set upon one particular star.
As the night grows deeper, it fades into brightness and I disappear into darkness.
Where, in what form shall the two of us...
you, one so warm, and me, one so tender, meet again?

Kim Whanki passed away in New York in 1974. Throughout his entire life, his artistic passion never grew old or became weak. Almost half a century has passed since his death, but his art is still highly respected. Meanwhile, his life story helps us realize how important it is to be true to and passionate about our dreams and ideals.