PARIS.- Almine Rech Paris is now hosting Disparitions, Kim Tschang-Yeul's third solo exhibition with the gallery. It was twilight when Kim Tschang-Yeul, then aged 42, discovered the droplet while sprinkling water over one of his canvases. This decisive moment marked the beginning of his ongoing research into this motif, whose countless variations the Korean artist obsessively explored until the end of his life. Crystal-clear and shimmering, these trompe-l'œil water pearls, which he had mastered to the subtlest detail, seem to evade time in their pristine perfection. The artist shattered the illusion of artifice, however, by exploring the tracks and traces behind his droplets beginning in the early 1970s. This previously undeveloped notion in Kim Tschang-Yeul's work links a group of pieces spanning nearly forty years of the artist's creative output, whose formal richness testifies to his inexhaustible creativity.

Solitary or serial, hazy or sharp, brown or grayish, a stain spreads across the canvas, sweeping diagonally across it or seeping into the paper. An ode to a moment’s fleetingness as well as its eternity, like the Japanese haiku expressed. — Alison Moss, Arts journalist and Editor.

Kim Tschang-Yeul is one of the greatest Korean painters. Born in 1929 in the north of the then unified Korea, he migrated to the south to escape the communist regime. He subsequently left for New York to pursue his artistic dreams before finally settling in Paris in 1969. There, he began to nurture, over a period of forty years, a unique motif: the drop of water. The waterdrop was the starting point for a singular and iconic body of work, which stands at the confluence of lyrical abstraction, Pop art and Chinese calligraphy. This simple and limpid œuvre subtly fuses Taoist wisdom, modern conceptual irony and the tragedy of war.

Kim Tschang-Yeul is considered one of the pre-eminent figures in the establishment of contemporary Korean art on the international scene, alongside Nam-June Paik and Lee Ufan. His work has been shown around the world for more than fifty years, recently culminating in several important retrospectives at the Gwangju Museum of Art, Korea, 2014; Taiwan National Museum of Fine Art, Taichung, 2012; Busan Museum of Art, Korea, 2009; National Art Museum of China, Beijing, 2006; and Jeu de Paume National Gallery, Paris, 2004.

The public initiative-based Kim Tschang-Yeul Museum, created in honor of the artist, opened on the island of Jeju, South Korea, in 2016.

Kim Tschang-Yeul: 'Disparitions'
November 18th, 2023 - December 22nd, 2023
Opening reception on Saturday, November 18, 2023 from 6 to 8 pm