Oh Sufan's Drawings
Time of Lines
Nov 27 - Dec 20, 2009Gana Art Center Miru
Drawing Becoming Poetry: Oh Sufan's Time of Lines
Park Miyoun(Curator)
The poet is he with whom feelings develop into images, and the images themselves into words which translate them while obeying the laws of rhythm. ― Henri Bergson
Man has continued activities of recording himself as well as society as he perceived it to be even before human life was recorded in written form, that is, before the concept of history emerged. The outcome of the activities was abstract and geometric patterns sometimes, and other times figurative forms as a more developed version. As these were gradually accumulated, and before he came to be aware that these could be a part of art, man began artistic acts naturally. The basic form of human beings' artistic acts starts from lines. Ancient people drew and connected lines to create geometric patterns in cave paintings. Their primitive gesture of drawing lines in the air using their body had a magical meaning. In this way, drawing became both the process and the product of artistic activities and a fundamental element in all artistic genres including art, architecture, music and dance.
'To draw'means moving steadily in a specified direction from a certain starting point to a certain end. It is doomed to arrive in the final destination. However, the process itself can be free almost infinitely depending on those who draw. Since drawing is a starting point for artistic work and simultaneously, the entire process of reaching the goal, it, by definition, expresses drawers' free sprit and passionate energy.
Truthful to this fundament concept and form of drawing, Oh Sufan has maintained his own way of drawing for a long time. By repeating thoroughly planned brush strokes, he intends to find the simple and primitive beauty, which will extend to the world of supreme beauty perceived only in the moment of unlimited freedom, unconsciousness and unwillingness. The artist sustains a double attitude toward drawing: he not only regards drawing as a tool used in the process to attain the ultimate stage of beauty but also aims to accomplish the same purpose in drawing itself.
Oh's abstract paintings, also called 'poetic abstract painting,'seem to be created with uncontrolled hand and the unconscious mind in total exclusion of logic and reason. However, he gets a drawing of each form before applying the paint with a brush. And then, his hand moves on the canvas dynamically, producing conscious brush works which are almost close to the unconscious state as a result of preliminary practices repeated a hundred thousand times. It might be that the artist begins with a drawing in the sense of 'rough sketch'and advances to the drawing of the whole process of oil painting. It is in this point where his drawings and oil paintings establish relations with each other.
While becoming foundation of his oil paintings, Oh's drawings in themselves occupy an independent position in his art world. He wants to perceive all things in the 'pure form of time', that is, in 'duration', to use Bergson's term. For him, drawing is lying on the durational time. During the forty years of his artistic career, his drawings have kept a continuous stream, not an intermittent one, though having undergone some changes. Oh calls this the 'time of lines.' Lines are the most natural method to express nature, man, and spirit to the artist who studied calligraphy and Chinese classics from childhood. In Asian culture, brushwork has been traditionally considered very important as is shown by the principle of Gufa Yongbi(骨法用筆) which emphasizes the completeness of form by properly using a brush. The artist naturally mastered the principle, learning from years-long practice and experience, which also made him pursue the very completeness. Furthermore, not only accustomed to the thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi but also devoted to Western philosophy, in particular, that of Bergson and Derrida, he asks radical questions about rational thinking. And in order to find an answer for himself, he puts himself on a strict and harsh practice in drawing. His conscious brush strokes of thousand times aspire to reach the world of Laozian Wu Wei(無爲), the well-known Daoist concept of the action of non-action. Oh believes that only a sternly rational attitude will be able to bring him there and this is what makes his paintings 'poetic drawing'imbued with oriental sentiments.