Simply Nature 1997: Distinctive echoes of Korean traditions

 

 Simply Nature 1997

Calcutta, India 

 

 

CHAE, CHANG-WAN'S PAINTINGS

May 27~June 1, 1997

Birla Academy of Art and Culture

108, Southern Avenue, Calcutta - 700 029. INDIA

 

 

Simply Nature-Scenery #1. oil on canvas. 35x47.5cms. 1996.

 

 

Distinctive echoes of Korean traditions

 

THE TELEGRAPH

Fri. 6 June 1997

Although the young Korean painter, Chae Chang-Wan, studied at Kala-Bhavan(Visva-Bharati) for an advanced degree, the series of his paintings done over the past one year or so, now on view at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, bear virtually no evidence of his training under teachers. This would seem to speak well of the methods of teaching at Kala-Bhavan where foreign students, especially high artistic skill and imagination, like Chae, are not sought to be ‘indoctrinated’. Even Chae’s favourite technique, oil and stone-powder on canvas, would appear fairly unconventional by academic practices pursued at Kal-Bhavan. But, these apart, Chae’s works carry a distinctly Korean flavour, bearing out his native manner of pictorial conceptualization, as also his own abstractionist vision of reality.

 

Simply Nature-Scenery #2. oil on canvas. 47.5x35cms. 1996.

Happily, he is among those painters of his genre who make it a point to provide a clue of two (often by way of throwing in ‘distorted’ imagery of identifiable objects, both animate and inanimate), although these are seldom like appendages hanging loosely in the pictorial space. Spontaneity and visual naturalness mark most of Chae’s compositions.

The art tradition of Korea, since the early Han Chinese invasions, and later in the wake of the cultural imperialism of the T’ang dynasty over Great Sillan Korea, and subsequently during the interface between Sung China and the Koryo dynasty, followed by Ming China’s influence on the arts and crafts of Korea, is a rich crop of cross-cultural fertilization.

Simply Nature-I am… #1. oil on canvas. 35x35cms. 1996.

As in the parallel example of Japan, ever since it entered the Chinese cultural orbit through Buddhism, the Korean art tradition emerges as a glorious case of integration of foreign traits into the particular talent of an innovative people. If Chae’s works show a preponderance of geometric contours and space division, the viewer would do well to trace this to a time honored Korean style and conception of design, particularly manifest in ancient Korean pottery. Chae’s Clay Jar series, for example, is reminiscent of that high tradition. ■ By Samir Dasgupta

 

Simply Nature-Standing by your side. oil on canvas. 35x35cms. 1996.

Simply Nature-I am… #2. oil on canvas. 128.5x128.5cms. 1997.

 Simply Nature-Cycle and I #1. oil on canvas. 35x35cms. 1996.

THE TELEGRAPH, Fri. 6 June 1997