Glory of Life in Art

Painter Koo accents nature, life in various forms in colorful, gorgeous mix to show their vital importance

Painter Koo Youn-joo displays an talent for stressing the importance of life in his art work, which look simple, but colorful and gorgeous as they employ many colors in splendid harmony. The painter, a fine arts graduate of Kyunghee University, appeals to the viewers with their colorful hues, and many figures, such as those of humans, animals and plants, which remain in memories of the viewers.
Many critics agree that it’s the Confucianism in Koo’s art and the themes feature a discipline to respect life and ways for its existence.
The painter says the understanding of the Confucian thoughts rests in respecting the value of life rather than forms of beauty, which explains why the figures are in complete forms with no limbs cut off filling the entire space of the canvas. The figures also are paired together by gender, male and female, as the painter wanted to show that no value exists if there is no life in his idea of humans and nature on earth.
Koo’s artwork have been proven to be a cure for people with bad cases of depression as they are bright and a pleasure to look at as Koo says his art pieces don’t have any thing to give stresses as all of the forms and colors are in harmony and every one, young and old, can appreciate them. They can be hung in any ways as they don’t have either up and downside so that they can be hung on the walls in any way their owners want to.
Painter Koo said in one of his articles on his art, that any painter asks him or herself the question what they should paint when they sit down before the canvases. What are beauties? And What kind of messages should they send through their paintings. The painters spend more time answering those questions than hours spent for painting, he says.
After the age of modernism, the Korean painting circles trends that pursued formative beauty made up the core of its activities under the name of pursuing pure art, he points out. Such trends in art are hard to be looked on as pure art from the standpoint of traditional art discipline, Koo asserts. Since the introduction of Western culture in Korea, the nature has been looked up on the resources provider such as food and construction material, stopped being regarded as the sacred source for life.
As a result the artists found forms of nature and colors vitally interesting, along with the creation of formative art forms such as those for balance and comparison.
But aesthetic values can be used as the measurement for nature’s outward appearances without regard for nature’s life writhing inside, the painter says.
He said this is why human beings are faced with its environment dangerously being eroded despite the enormous progress in medicine and science. Excessive use of fossil fuel caused earth warming and blind development projects have all contributed to environmental destruction and they are traceable to the very idea that sees nature as just a thing for exploitation, Koo said. nw

Living Together-A Principle; 45 x 38 cm; Acrylic Color on Canvas; 2009

Living Together-The Way6; 45.5 x 38 cm; Acrylic Color on Canvas; 2009

Living Together-The Way17; 194 x 130.3 cm; Acrylic Color on Canvas; 2009

Living Together-A Principle 095; 90.9 x 65.1 cm; Acrylic Color on Canvas; 2009

Living Together-A Principle 18; 53 x 40.5; Acrylic Color; 2009