While faces and mountains, the main subjects of Kwun Sun-cheol’s artworks, have very particular forms, he has attempted to elicit their conceptual meaning from within, instead of focusing on their exterior. For this reason, the figures in his works strongly evoke a sense of the abstract. The “Soul” series does not feature any particular form, but Kwun has already been capturing for a long time the soul nestled in the great mountain ranges or in the faces of the people. The art critic Kim Yun-su once observed that Kwun’s persistent pursuit of the theme of the “soul” might have originated from the trauma and sense of loss he felt as a child after his father’s death during the Korean War. Compared with the “Face” and “Mountain” series, the “Soul” series depicts the human body in an abstract manner, bringing it much closer to abstract painting than figurative work. Yet, at the same time, it also employs the same techniques as the other two series. Dominating the center of the frame, “Soul” (1985) is filled with the image of a human body displayed like a chunk of meat. The surface of the body is cut and ripped open, exposing the dark interior through the scar. Having been ripped apart and boldly exposed, the body is painted in bright colors to convey visually, but in a sensitive manner, the pain and agony of human history. The “Soul” (1988) created three years later demonstrates strongly abstract characteristics, being almost entirely devoid of figurative elements compared with the previous iteration. This work also foregrounds the very rough, thick matiere through the application of layers of paint and the juxtapositioning of dark colors with brighter ones in order to embody a nonmaterial, supernatural entity―the soul―in an intense but sensitive manner. As such, Kwun has attempted to console the souls of the public with universal sentiment by expanding his own personal story into a broader historical and social context.
Kwun Sun-cheol (b. 1944) received his bachelor’s degree from the Department of Painting at the Seoul National University’s College of Fine Arts in 1971, where he also received his master’s in 1984. In 1989, Kwun emigrated to France where he has continued to practice art. He has held solo exhibitions at Growrich Gallery in 1978; Seoul Museum in 1982; Galerie Frank Hanel, Frankfurt, in 1992; Gallery Chosun in 1993 (“The 4th Lee Joong Sup Art Award Celebration Exhibition”); Gana Art Center in 2000; Doosan Gallery in 2003; Gana Art Center in 2012; and Daegu Art Museum in 2016. He has also taken part in several regular and group exhibitions including “New System” at ARKO Art Center from 1972 to 1977; “Korean Fine Arts Association Exhibition” at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, currently MMCA, from 1979 to 1988; “Humanity” at Kwanhoon Gallery from 1983 to 1989; “Spring in Painting” at Hanlim Gallery in 1998; “Declaration: 100 Artists for Peace” at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, currently MMCA, in 2004; “The Flame
of the Holy Spirit” at Galerie Lumen, Paris, in 2009; and “Eye and Mind of Korean Contemporary Art II？Reinstatement of Realism” at Gana Art Center in 2016. He is the recipient of the 4th Lee Joong Sup Art Award in 1993.
Kwun Sun-cheol creates works in a realist style while emphasizing expressive aspects through rough brushstrokes, thick matiere, squashed figures, and murky tones. Kwun often features mountains, faces, and the human soul as his subject matter in order to express the joys and the sorrows of laborers and the country’s uniquely Korean landscapes. Above all, Kwun Sun-cheol draws ordinary mountains of the kind that can be found around us. It may not seem overwhelming at first glance, yet the way Kwun builds up layers of repetitive brushstrokes creates strong, robust mountain ranges. His other subject, faces, are those of “the Korean elders who have lived through the storms of life” (art critic Kim Yun-soo), as well as those of laborers. For this reason, the surfaces of the faces drawn by Kwun are often emphasized in a way that starkly exposes the matiere as it is applied using layer after layer of dark colors. Such intense expressive brushstrokes became clearer and more pronounced in the “Soul” series. Kwun Sun-cheol has consistently maintained his interest in these three themes from his early period to the present.
