Pearl Lam Galleries is pleased to present By Nature, a joint exhibition by Korean artists An Zongde (b. 1957) and Park Yungnam (b. 1949). Nature is considered as a motif in both An Zongde’s and Park Yungnam’s artistic creations. An allows the effects of time and nature to reveal themselves through objects, while Park paints with his fingers, wishing to create a utopia of limitless beauty. An and Park both believe that art is an experience; their art can be seen as an expression of their experience, when their art is “being made” by nature.
An Zongde reveals his philosophy of humility, prudence, and moderation through his art. He understands his materials well and is able to utilise them in various combinations with the effects of nature. The artist uses a wide variety of unpretentious materials from everyday life, including dried plants, rice, old fabric, rocks, rusted metal, needles, and thread, which change steadily with the effects of nature. An’s work is a trace of how time passes; the power of sunlight, wind, and rain consolidates on the materials, leaving unpredictable and indelible marks on his canvas.
Le Temps (2012–), one of An Zongde’s featured works, is a result of sunlight, rain, and wind acting upon the work over several years. The artist spread a blue cotton cloth on the earth and placed stones, wooden blocks, and iron on it. Artificial colours and forms disappeared after the cloth was exposed to natural elements, and the trace of time appeared on the work with new colours and forms. The white dot in the middle of the work, a minimal mark of the artist’s intervention, expresses the balance and order of a microcosm. In Le Temps (2013–), the artist placed sheets of coloured paper with sticks made of lime powder under sunlight. The sheets of paper collected light with time until all the colours disappeared and recorded the physical changes of reality which we do not see.
Park Yungnam’s creation process does not entertain any conscious intention; instead, he creates art with comfort, simplicity, and purity. Park paints with his fingers as an extension of the play that he relished when he was a child, creating freely roaming lines and powerful movements. Park’s works lead viewers to recollect forgotten delights of childhood memories, leading them to wander in the world of innocence. Among the five senses, Park is especially keen on the sense of touch, associating his finger painting to primitiveness; to Park, rubbing colours onto a canvas is akin to feeling around an immense surface of earth.
In Moonlight Song, Park’s series of black and white acrylic paintings, the artist started with nature as a motif and only hues are revealed once completed. Park is firm in his belief that “colours are forms”; without making any effort to depict nature, colours are transferred to a different kind of “natural form”. Park says, “I hope my painting is made, rather than me making the work. I wish that the created world were Utopia. Furthermore, I wish that world of Utopia were a world of limitless beauty.”
About An Zongde
An Zongde was born in 1957 in Seoul, Korea. He graduated from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France in 1986. The artist currently lives and works in Yeoju, Korea.
An creates harmony from opposites, bringing together things that are contradictory to each other in one place. He delivers universal truths from everyday life and traces of time through his works, which are his meditations on life and art. An does not use fancy materials like silver and gold. Instead, he chooses ordinary, simple, and modest materials such as food, dried plants, paper, metal, and rocks, which change slowly but steadily. Wind, rain, sunlight, and other natural elements are important to An’s works; they leave indelible marks on paper as time goes by. As the power of nature consolidates on the surface of paper, the works become eternal.
An has held solo exhibitions all over the world including in Korea, France, Austria, and Switzerland. His works have been included in multiple international group exhibitions at venues such as the Busan Museum of Art in Korea, Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris, Musée Pierre-Noël de Saint-Dié- des-Vosges, and Fondation Eugéne Napoléon in France, among many others. His numerous awards include Special Prize in the Joong-Ang Fine Arts Competition, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Award from the Chairman of Arts Council Korea, Creative Art Association Exhibition.
About Park Yungnam
Park Yungnam was born in 1949 in Seoul, Korea. He graduated from the Art College of Seoul National University in 1973 and received his MFA from the City College of New York in 1983. The artist currently lives and works in Seoul, Korea.
Park’s painting appears as a symbol of confession and memory. Instead of using brushes, he pours paint on the canvas and rubs it with his fingers, relishing the different colours like when he was a child. Painting with fingers can be seen as a primitive act of relaying one’s instinct. Encompassing both concrete and abstract art, Park obstinately introduces himself as a landscape painter when he composes geometric spaces on canvas with abstract colour planes.
Park has held solo exhibitions in Korea, France, and the United States. His works have been included in group exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Seoul Museum of Art, Sungkok Art Museum in Korea, and The City of Stuttgart Museum in Germany. He received an award from the Kim Soogeun Foundation for the Arts.
