Best friend painter Kim Heung-soo - Lee Dal-ju's 'reunion after 40 years' & Artist Kim Heung-soo's solo exhibition after overcoming illness
Exhibition of works at Gana Art Yoon Gallery & artist Heungsoo Kim presents 18 works for the first time in 5 years, “The senses come alive again”
“I am so emotional because it feels like I met an old best friend after 40 years. That friend, even when he was working on a piece of work, if he didn't like it, he would crush it, draw on it again, and repeat it countless times. The day that friend died was my birthday. 'I have to go to Heungsu's birthday party... 'He said his last words like a will... .”
Artist Kim Heung-soo (85), who was preparing for a solo exhibition after overcoming the aftereffects of three surgeries, rushed to the news of the solo exhibition of Lee Dal-ju (1920-1962), a Western painter who had died young, and was a close friend of the Western Painting Department at Tokyo University of Fine Arts, as if it were his own business. Although his personal exhibition is important, he says it is as exciting as going to see a close friend who is exhibiting for the first time in 40 years since the memorial exhibition in 1964.
“I never dreamed that I would be able to hold a press conference just because I was holding a solo exhibition.” Artist Kim, who had suffered from paralysis of the lower body due to spinal abnormalities since the end of 2002, appeared healthy without even using a cane on this day, and although his voice was somewhat lowered, his eloquence was still passionate. “I didn’t even have the strength to brush for a while. “Then, last fall, the first work I worked hard to complete was ‘An Angel Who Came to Me.’”
In this solo exhibition, artist Kim submitted 18 works, focusing on props Nos. 1 to 5, including one piece No. 50. The use of strong colors and lively yet refined strokes actually give a sense of youthful energy. These are artist Kim's unique 'harmonism (yin-yang plasticism)' paintings that juxtapose female nudes and geometric shapes to capture the spirit of figuration, abstraction, and the East and West in one canvas.
