The “Yongma Mountain” series provides a glimpse into Kwun Suncheol’s artistic sensibility, revealing an interest in the vestiges of time piled layer upon layer, rather than something new and fresh. The mountain is an entity that preserves intact the traces of long periods of time more than anything human; therefore, Kwun has visited many mountains in Korea to capture their landscapes on his canvas firsthand. Mt. Yongma, which rises 348 meters above sea level, is the highest peak in the Acha mountain range that delineates the boundary between Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, a landscape Kwun encountered every day when he taught students at Sunhwa Arts High School. Drawn over an extended period of time, Mt. Yongma bears the scars of history that still remain somewhere on the mountain, rather than just a beautiful, imposing
terrain.
One of three pieces in the “Yongma Mountain” series, “Yongma Mountain” (1977) is the earliest of the three; it was created eight years before the other two. It consists of dark colors and rough brushstrokes more reminiscent of his “Face” series than a green, leafy summer mountainscape. The art critic Jean-Louis Poitevin once observed that Kwun’s mountains present mountain ranges reminiscent of strong bones. Paints of high density, which have been applied layer upon layer using brushstrokes filled with condensed energy, convey in visual form the mountain’s solitary yet strong qualities by integrating the liveliness and dynamics of Mother Nature.
The later works by the same title created in 1984 and 1985, respectively, feature panoramic mountain landscapes compared with the first work. The two works share the same composition, yet exude different colors, reflecting Kwun’s artistic attitude as he observed the ever-changing Mother Nature. The mountainous terrain is depicted in a strong, dignified manner despite the barren mountainside that has been carved out by quarrying work. At that time, Kwun featured mountains along with the faces of ordinary people. The mountains that had weathered the times in silence while nursing huge scars were a metaphor for the people who had lived through and endured modern and ontemporary Korean history firsthand. The series drawing the same mountain by Kwun have been compared with “Mont Sainte-Victoire” by Paul Cezanne. But if Cezanne’s mountains were expressed abstractly, thereby bringing a new perspective to the art world of the time, Kwun’s mountains emphasize the ideological side to show the mountain’s vitality. As such, Kwun Sun-cheol’s major subjects―faces, mountains, and the soul―do not render separate themes individually but instead form a consistent context altogether.
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.
