Kim Byung-jong

Kim Byung-jong served for 36 years at the College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University, and is now Professor Emeritus there and Distinguished Professor at Gachon University. Kim has held some thirty solo exhibitions in Seoul, Paris, Chicago, Brussels, Tokyo, Basel and elsewhere, and has published more than thirty books, including the travel-sketchbook series “Hwacheop Gihaeng.” Kim has received the Korea Culture and Arts Award, the Art Journalists’ Award, the Sun Art Award, the Korea Christian Art Award and the Ahn Gyeon Art and Culture Grand Prize, among others, and the Order of Cultural Merit of the Republic of Korea. Kim’s works are held by renowned museums in Korea and abroad, including the British Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. The Namwon Kim Byung-jong Museum of Art is currently marking its fifth anniversary with the special exhibition “Kim Byung-jong: 40 Years, the Brush Never Sleeps,” Part 2. Part 1, “Hwahong Sansu, Songhwa Bunbun, Pungjuk,” which closed on the 13th, drew some 17,000 visitors over 63 days, who resonated with its theme of the cycle of life. “Hwahong Sansu” expresses the beauty of nature and life through traditional painting techniques: a traditional landscape is painted in acrylic on canvas, hanji paper is applied over it, and red flowers are rendered with traditional pigments. Images of birds, fish and flowers recall the free compositions of folk painting and, together with rich color, sing of a longing for an ideal world.