Yun Hyong-keun

A contemplative exploration of the work of Yun Hyong-keun, a renowned Korean abstract painter, during a transformative period in Paris in the early 1980s. From 1980 to 1982, Yun Hyong-keun resided in Paris, seeking both peace from the violent political turmoil that exploded in South Korea in 1980 and a new, artistic center in which to create work. His brief but illuminating stay in the city became the locus of his freedom of expression. Yun’s signature abstract compositions engage and transcend Eastern and Western art movements and visual traditions, establishing him as one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century. He is the most prominent figure associated with the Dansaekhwa (monochrome painting) movement, the name given to a group of influential Korean artists from the 1960s and 1970s. Using a restricted palette of ultramarine and umber, Yun created his compositions of monolithic swathes by adding layer upon layer of paint to raw canvas or linen and to hanji (Korean mulberry paper), often applying the next coat before the one below had dried.