“Inside and Outside” (late 1980s) is a title borrowed from the essay by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, also known as “the Phenomenology of Perception.” Kim’s oeuvre has been significantly influenced by Merleau-Ponty. The title of the series “Visible and Invisible” was named under the same influence. “Inside and Outside” was created by dividing a large square canvas in the form of a large cross, then making small pea-sized dots at the upper, lower, left, and right sides of the canvas and applying a red background all over the top of the other colors. In this process of creation, the dots that were drawn as a pattern retreat inward and the background color that covers the entire canvas is drawn out to reverse the traditional order of painting. This approach brought about a new perception of the invisible world and rejected the dichotomy between what is inside and what is outside, visualizing the state of absorption of each. Kim draws attention to the planarity of painting, rather than the
materiality of shape and color through the pure shapes of dots, lines, and planes, and the composition of a monochrome canvas. The pure monochromatic planes express sentimental elements, and the thick sense of depth calls for a time and space for meditation. Ultimately, Kim aims to express self-awareness in life and art.
Kim Gui-line (b. 1936) received his bachelor’s degree in French Language and Literature at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and Art History at the University of Bourgogne, Dijon from 1961 to 1965. He received another bachelor’s degree in art at Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris from 1965 to 1968 and his master’s degree at Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Arts-Decoratifs in 1971. Currently, Kim works as a member of the Korean Artists’ Association residing in France. “Inside and Outside” (late 1980s) is a title borrowed from the essay by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, also known as “the Phenomenology of Perception.” Kim’s oeuvre has been significantly influenced by Merleau-Ponty. The title of the series “Visible and Invisible” was named under the same influence.
After Kim Gui-line turned to painting after being influenced by the Russian Suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich during his studies in France, he became central figure to the Korean monochrome movement of the 1970s. Kim has consistently focused on flat planes since the beginning of his work, and in the 1970s, he created monochrome works primarily using white and black. He restored the function of black and white in monochromatic paintings through overlapping dozens of coats paint until the white could absorb light and the black could not. This was created with the intention to visualize the change of color over time, and at the same time to restore people’s imagination into an invisible world through monochrome paintings. In the 1980s, he focused on drawings of a square inside a square canvas and also on monochrome paintings that consisted of repeated oval-shaped dots. Entering the 1990s, he reinforced his existing work style using intense primary colors. Kim aimed to shift the focus from what is seen to what cannot be seen in reading of a painting by lining up recurring small dots on a large canvas and then repeatedly painted over the dots.
