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Yun Hyong-Keun
1928 , Miwon, South Korea — 2007 , Seoul, South Korea
© Seong-Ryeol Yun
Yun Hyong-Keun, former member of Korean art movement Dansaekhwa, became best known for his Umber Blue paintings. Yun's inspiration came from nature when he witnessed a tree and its roots dissolving into the soil of a mountain. Strongly impressed by the scene, Yun decided to capture the essence of nature in his work.
Honesty and truthfulness of nature gave way to muted, receded colours, and a simple composition of bold squared-shaped fields in earthly shades. Over time, the artist reduced his colour palette to ultramarine blue and burnt umber. Yun consecutively applied the heavily diluted paints directly onto the linen canvas on top of each other. Due to the characteristics of these materials, paint smears into canvas quickly and creates blurred margins around the bars. Different rates of colour absorption can be seen, as each brush stroke is unique. The process is very natural and organic, like water soaking into the soil.
Yun's work is often referred to as Korean minimalism. Donald Judd discovered the structural aesthetics in Yun's monochrome paintings in the 1990s when Judd saw it in the artist's studio during Judd's visit to Korea for a solo exhibition at Inkong Gallery in Seoul. Judd expressed high praise for Yun's simple structural work and invited Yun to exhibit his work at the Judd Foundation in 1993. Yun agreed and the show included a selection of twenty paintings. One year later, Yun's exhibit travelled to the Judd's Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas.
This exhibition of Yun's work was Judd's very last project for the Chinati Foundation before he died. In 1996, the Chinati Foundation, together with the Judd Foundation, organised a group exhibition including works of Yun and Judd, and joined by many other international contemporaries such as Carl Andre, John Chamberlain, Claes Oldenburg, Roni Horn, Richard Long and Barnett Newman.
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About Yun Hyong-Keun
Since everything on earth ultimately returns to earth, everything is just a matter of time. When I remember that this also applies to me and my paintings, it all seems so trifling.
Artist's note from 1990
Yun Hyong-Keun (left) and Donald Judd (right) at the Judd Foundation in New York, 1993, on the occasion of Yun's solo exhibition, invited by Judd.
What is painting? I still really don't know the answer. Is it a mere trace from combustion of life? I think one's ego is more freely and definitely expressed in the world of unconscious. the more one tries to express oneself, the ego becomes self-conscious, hence, the expression becomes contrived. Therefore, I don't think there can be answer to painting. I have no idea as to what I should paint, and at which point I should stop painting. There, in the midst of such uncertainty, I just paint. I don't have a goal in mind. I want to paint that something which is nothing, that will inspire me endlessly to go on.
Yun Hyong-Keun, 1976
To know more about the available artworks of this artist, please contact us at info@axelvervoordtgallery.com
Exhibitions at Axel Vervoordt Gallery
From February 04 → March 05, 2016