Han Mook, living legend of abstract art

Retrospective to show the 99-year-old artist’s lifetime endeavor of depicting space


Space has been an inspiration for Korean abstract artist Han Mook since he saw the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.

Over a half century, bearing that theme in mind, the 99-year-old Paris-based artist created all sorts of depictions of space, from the two-dimensional to the four-dimensional, using geometric structures and vibrant colors.

At his upcoming retrospective at Gallery Hyundai Gangnam in Seoul, Han presents about 40 works that represent each decade of his artistic career including some works he is unveiling to the public for the first time.

“How I portray space has been the key task in my life. I have undergone troubles and conflicts myself in how to develop two-dimensional images into three-dimensional and then to four-dimensional,” said Han at the press meeting at Gallery Hyundai Gangnam last week before his retrospective opens on Wednesday. 

His determination to depict space has earned him the title “the father of abstract painting” in Korea.

Born in 1914 in Seoul, Han graduated from Kawabata Art School in Tokyo, Japan, in 1940. At the outbreak of the Korean War, he stayed in the northern part of the country for seven years and later fled to Busan.

He started his artistic career in 1952 when he submitted artwork to a war painting exhibition. His paintings were mostly based on war scenes and memories, but later he simplified the images, which became the seeds of his abstract art.

During the 1950s, he co-founded the Modern Art Association with legendary artists such as Yoo Young-guk and Lee Kyu-sang in 1957, and also formed the Association of Korean Art Critics in 1956.

Han suddenly moved to Paris in 1960 at the age of 47 just to explore new art opportunities, leaving behind the success he built as an established artist in the Korean art world.

He uses repeated geometric patterns with lively colors in the background to realize his perception of space as “a moving and living state.”

“I began to think that space was not confined to the canvas. I tried to depict indefinite space, which also becomes outer space. But then I thought indefinite space was not enough to depict outer space where a human being visited to land on the moon,” said Han.

“So I came up with speed, which was a key factor for human beings to reach the moon,” Han added.

His paintings also reflect Han’s determination for “perfection, rigorousness and experimental spirit,” as Pierre Cambon, chief curator of Guimet Museum of Asian Arts in Paris, put it.

Despite his age, Han draws circles as big as 2 meters in radius by himself, using a specially manufactured compass he designed.

“I don’t consider myself as old as 90 or 100. I just live in the moment. I am getting closer to death, but I don’t care about it. In the end, everyone will meet death,” said Han, who described drawing as a “challenge to a kind of invisible force” in a magazine article in 1954.

His retrospective runs from Aug. 22-Sept. 16 at Gallery Hyundai Gangnam, Seoul.

For more information, call (02) 2287-3500 or visit www.galleryhyundai.com.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)