Elegance of Korean-style Art

Painter Byun employs minimalism in her ink painting work to express nature

Painter Byun Keum-hee just finished her solo exhibition at Gallery Ann in Seoul, attracting many viewers to her inimitable Korean-style brush painting.
She said that man by nature, likes to express many things in different manners and is not easily satisfied with repeated expressions, despite the shortage of expressions. This was why fine art was born, so to speak, she said. What does man feel most satisfied in life's In Europe, they said it is beauty, but in the Orient, they said it is pleasure. This shows that the two factors are the same so far as they express the pursuit of satisfaction in life by man. In Europe, they said beauty is art; while in the Orient, they said pleasure is courtesy and music. In the West, they try to separate art based on its genre, but in the East, they tend to put them all together in the same category.
The painter said what she want to discuss was the literary painting, which derived from the Oriental thoughts,
    
in particular, the influenced by Laotzu thoughts. The ancient Chinese scholar claimed that beauty and ugliness faced up against each other, but they are unified in fact; they depend on each other. Laotzu doesn't want to fight because he wants to be in line with the Way (do). Both beauty and ugly can live together, despite their difference because they both were derived from nothing and return to nothing. The Chinese scholar thought that the prosperity of every creature on earth is just skin of the do, in fact and fantasy. Chiangtzu, in the meantime, said beauty and ugly are the same, because it is impossible to prove their standards. He stressed do all the way insisting that beauty and ugly are the same.
Painter Byun stressed that she would like to express changes in extremes as if they are changing naturally, not by men. She said she tries to seek minimalism which deeply expresses the spiritual world of the literary painting painters. Minimalism deals with the origin of minimum art form with critical importance, while concern on simple colors and basics and minimizes the illusion through the introduction of purity.
A graduate of Hansung University Graduate School of Fine Art, the painter won prizes in a number of national fine art exhibitions including the Korea Grand Fine Art Exhibition. She participated in a score of invitational and group art exhibitions.
A member of Korea Fine Art Association, the artist currently teaches fine art at Kuseong Middle School in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province of ROK. nw

Painter Byun Keum-hee

Jacaranda; 70 x 55 cm; Ink on Korean Paper; 2006

Reminiscence; 70 x 63cm; Ink on Korean Paper; 2006

White Magnolia Flower; 70 x 46 cm; Ink on Korean Paper; 2006