Kim Tschang-yeul (24 December 19295 January 2021) was a South Korean artist in France known for his abstract paintings of water droplets.

Art

In 1958, Kim formed the Modern Artists' Association and joined the

Art Informel Informalism or Art Informel is a pictorial movement from the 1943–1950s, that includes all the abstract and gestural tendencies that developed in France and the rest of Europe during the World War II, similar to American abstract expressionis ...

movement, led by Whanki Kim, a pioneering abstract artist of Korea. In 1965, he received a Rockefeller Foundation grant to study at the Art Students League of New York. In 1969, he moved to Paris and lived there for the next 45 years. He has been compared to

Lee Ufan Lee Ufan (Korean: 이우환, Hanja: 李禹煥, born 1936 in Haman County, in South Kyongsang province in Korea) is a Korean minimalist painter and sculptor artist and academic, honored by the government of Japan for having "contributed to the ...

and

Nam June Paik Nam June Paik (; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super h ...

and described as a "towering figure of Korean modern art". Kim was named a chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1996 and received a silver crown (eungwan) of the Order of Cultural Merit in 2013.

Life

Kim was born in Japanese occupied Korea on 24 December 1929 in Maengsan (modern-day North Korea) and was the eldest in a family of six children. After his hometown was taken over by the

Soviet Civil Administration The Soviet Civil Administration (SCA) was the government of the northern half of Korea from 24 August 1945 to 9 September 1948 though governed concurrently after the setup of the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea in 1946. Even thoug ...

following the

division of Korea The division of Korea began with the defeat of Japan in World War II. During the war, the Allied leaders considered the question of Korea's future after Japan's surrender in the war. The leaders reached an understanding that Korea would be l ...

in 1946, he was arrested for holding an anti-communist pamphlet at the age of 17. After being held for 10 days, he fled to

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

, at the time under US control. In Seoul, he lived in a refugee camp for a year. Kim studied art at Seoul National University until the communist capture of Seoul during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

in 1950. Following the capture, he escaped to Jeju Island where he worked as a police officer. He returned to Seoul in 1953 when the violence ceased, and worked as an art teacher in High School. He was the founding member of Hyeondae misulga hyophoe (Contemporary Artists Association) in 1957. He is the father of French artist Oan Kim.

References

External links

Jeju Kim Tschang-Yeul Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Tschang-yeul 1929 births 2021 deaths 20th-century South Korean painters 21st-century South Korean painters Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Korean expatriates in the United States Recipients of the Order of Cultural Merit (Korea)