Whanki Kim

He balanced keeping Korean values and beliefs close and incorporating new foreign techniques into his works, which evidently reflect his personal identity and Korea's national identity, impacted by the political and social conditions of the mid-1900s.

Born as the fourth child and only son of wealthy farmer and local landowner Kim Sang-hyeon (김상현), Kim Whanki grew up comfortably on Kijwa island.

After graduating from elementary school, Kim was sent to Seoul to live with his older sister and attend Choongdong Middle School (중동중학교).

His family then supported him to study abroad in Tokyo, Japan, where he attended Nishikishiro (錦城) Middle School.

During his five years of study, he learned to play the violin.

Kim Whanki (April 3, 1913 – July 25, 1974) was a painter and pioneering abstract artist of Korea, born in the village of Eupdong-ri on the island of Kijwa, of Anjwa-myeon, Sinan County, South Jeolla Province in Korea under Japanese rule.

Kim lived and worked in a number of cities and countries during his lifetime, including Tokyo, Japan; Seoul and Busan, Korea; Paris, France; and New York City, USA, where he died.

Kim belongs to the first generation of Korean Abstract artists, mixing oriental concepts and ideals with abstraction.

With refined and moderated formative expression based on Korean Lyricism, he created his characteristic art world.

His artworks largely dealt with diverse hues and patterns.

Kim's early works were semi-abstract paintings which allowed viewers to see certain forms, but his later works were more deeply absorbed abstract paintings, filled with lines and spaces.

Once Kim returned home in 1932, his father objected to Kim's wishes to continue his studies and set Kim to marry.

Thus in 1933, at the age of 20, Kim enrolled in the 3-year program offered at the Department of Arts at Nihon University in Tokyo.

During his second year into the program, Kim joined the Avant-Garde Western Painting Institute (アヴァンギャルド洋画研究所, AbuangyarudoYōga Kenkyūjo), led by Japanese artists who were introducing to Japan Cubism, Futurism, and Surrealism based on their experience living and working in Europe.

Among his mentors were Togo Seiji and Tsuguharu Foujita.

In 1935, Kim is awarded for his first submission to the prestigious Second Section Association (二科会, Nikakai, 이과전, Igwajŏn), When the Skylarks Sing (종달새 노래할 때), marking his debut as an artist.

The painting portrays a woman dressed in hanbok, whose body was rendered in geometric, simplified forms.

The basket upon her head is "transparent" by showing its content at an impossible angle, revealing Kim's interest apart from realism and towards abstraction.

His first piece that gained popularity was When Skylarks Sing (1935), which depicts a woman holding a basket on T.O.P of her head.

The building in the background plays with light and shadows and is one of the many geometric shapes that creates depth in the painting.

Whanki Kim contrasts the realistic depiction of a traditional Korean woman with an ambiguous background that muddles the exact setting of the painting.

His experiments of incorporating Korean motifs as simplified forms onto the flat picture plane continued, as can be seen in House <집> (1936) and Sauce Jar Terrace <장독대> (1936).

Features often seen in traditional Korean houses, such as wooden gates, paper screen doors, stone walls, stairs, and pottery, are also noted to have added a sense of order and repetition to his paintings, further illustrating his development towards pure abstraction.

During this time Kim participated in activities led by Japan's many artist associations, such as the Hakujitsu Society (白日会), Kofu Society (光風會, Kofukai, 광풍회, Kwangp'unghoe), Free Artists' Association (自由美術家協会, Jiyū Bijutsuka Kyōkai), the Rooｍ Nine Society (九室會; Kyushitsukai), and the Hakuban Society (白蛮会, 백만회, Paengmanhoe).

The Hakuban was established in 1936 after the closure of the Avant-Garde Western Painting Institute by five of its members, including Kim and Gil Jin-seop (길진섭, 吉鎭燮, 1970–1975).

His first solo exhibition took place at the Amagi Gallery in Tokyo in January 1937, only months before returning to Korea.

He even stayed an additional year in Japan as an assistant before returning to Korea in 1937.

Kim's time in Tokyo supported his identity as an Abstract artist.

In his university years, he became fascinated by the work of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso His works of 1937 and 1938, such as Rondo, Aria, and White Seagull, are said to show a clear turn toward abstraction with their compositions of pure geometric shapes consisting of repeated rhythmic circular and oblong shapes with squares intersecting or overlapping.

Whanki Kim's early art experimentation with geometric abstraction drew inspiration from Cubism.

Even after he left Tokyo, Kim continued to submit works to the Free Artists' Association in Japan until 1941, including Rondo <론도> (1938).

The artist's partner Hyang-an Kim established the Whanki Foundation in 1978 and opened the Whanki Museum in 1992.

The Museum, located in Seoul, was built by Korean American architect Kyu Sung Woo.

A pioneer of abstract painting and the godfather of the Dansaekhwa movement, Whanki Kim established his place in Korean history and art at an early age.

Whanki Kim was an artist whose profound impact on the history of Korean art was seen in the first wave of abstract art.

His nomadic lifestyle led him to many different places, like Japan, France, and the U.S., which differentiated his artwork from other artists, who created their art based in Korea, due to the lack of opportunities for travel.

As a peripatetic artist gaining inspiration from artists of other origins, Whanki Kim's style of abstract art transformed from geometric abstraction to art with traditional Korean motifs to monochrome paintings of dots and lines.

His great-nephew is Choi Seung-hyeon (b. 1987), an artist, actor, and rapper active under the moniker T.O.P as well as a member of Big Bang.

Having decided to become an artist against his father's wishes, Kim secretly boarded a vessel bound for Japan.

As one of the earliest examples of abstract art in modern Korea, the country's government designated the painting as a Registered Cultural Property (No. 535) in 2013.