Art of Dansaekhwa Park Daa Won Now here

Art of Tansaekhwa 
Park Daa Won 

 Art of Dansaekhwa 
Now Here in Blue  / PARK DAAWON


PARK DAA  WON  was born in Daegu in 1957  and studied painting at the College of Design and Art, Yeungnam University.  Park is a petite woman with a gorgeous girly smile.  In contrast to her feminine physical appearance, her work is intriguingly masculine.  The masculinity of her recent body of work such as Now Here In Blue” and “Now Here-Becoming” series is manifested in the boldness, dynamics, vigour and energy which are expressed by her confident brushwork, as well as the carefully staged tensions between the painted image and empty spaces and the mobile and static.  This masculinity is perhaps derived from her aesthetic foundation largely shaped through her early childhood exposure to the Korean literati painting (‘Muninhwa’ in Korean and ‘Wenrenzhihua’ in Chinese), which was traditionally predominately practiced by men, especially scholar-gentlemen during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). 

Art of Dansaekhwa
Now Here in Blue  / PARK DAAWON

 Art of Dansaekhwa 
Now Here -Becoming  /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 

Now Here -Becoming  /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 

Now Here -Becoming  /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 

Now Here -Becoming  /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 

Now Here -Becoming  /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 

Now Here -Becoming  /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 

Now Here -Becoming  /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 

Now Here -Becoming  /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 

Now Here -Becoming  /PARK DAA WON

Growing up with a mother who ran a gallery, Park was extremely fortunate to see the original works of the last eminent Joseon literati masters like Byeong O Seo (1862-1935) at very early age.  In her first year at university, she had also a rare chance to see the original painting of “A Wintry Scene” (Sehando) is held in a private collection.  Wintry Scene is one of the best known works by by Jeong Hui Kim (1786-1857), who was a powerful scholar-official, an influential art critic and connoisseur, an acclaimed calligrapher and importantly, the most prominent literati painter of the late Joseon period.  Kim painted this piece during his exile (1840-1848) on Cheju Island.  The deliberately sketchy wintry scene, thereby creating an austere atmosphere, is designed to express the artist’s lonely inner self and his integrity.  Park’s “Now Here In Blue” and “Now Here-Becoming” series, despite of their contemporary medium and idioms, are connected to the essence of the Korean literati tradition exemplified by Kim.

Art of Dansaekhwa 
Now Here   /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 
Now Here   /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 
Now Here   /PARK DAA WON

                                               
                                       Art of Dansaekhwa  /      Now  Here       /     PARK DAA WON

                                             
                                    Art of Dansaekhwa  /     Now Here   /      PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa  /     Now Here   /      PARK DAA WON

Park is,of course, not the only contemporary Korean artist who rediscovered the contemporary relevance of the calligraphy and brush-and-ink painting originated in ancient China and practiced widely in East Asia.  Not only Korean artists but also other Asian artists like Zao Wou-Ki (1920 –2013), as well as Western artists such as the French Art Informel painter Georges Mathieu (1921 –2012) and the American Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline (1910–1962), found inspiration in the tradition of East Asian calligraphy and ink painting in their search for an authentic way to express their emotions, inner world, psychological sates and spirituality.  According to the East Asian literati painting theory, first formulated in the 11^th century by Su Shih (1036-1101), a Northern Sung painter and calligrapher, the distinctive use of an individual artist’s brushwork could and should reveal chi, the spirit of Nature or the spirit of the artist herself or himself.  Park’s “Now Here In Blue” and “Now Here-Becoming” series are a contemporary reinterpretation of this theory.  Each piece of these series captures the arrested momentum of the varied breath, rhythmic energy flow, emotion, spiritual strength and psychological force of the artist, which is meant to animate or be re-produced in the mind of the viewer. 

Art of Dansaekhwa 

Now Here  in Blue  /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 
Now Here  in Blue  /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 
Now Here  in Blue  /PARK DAA WON

Art of Dansaekhwa 
Now Here  in Blue  /PARK DAA WON

                   Art of Dansaekhwa 
                  Now Here  in Blue  /   PARK DAA WON

To arrive at this state, Park has refined necessary skills and techniques.  Her seemingly spontaneous and ‘natural’ brushwork is in fact a result of numerous rehearsals of swiftly making an image without drawing over the same line twice.  Before the performance of painting she meditates, and thus she has a clear vision of the images she is about to create.  Through this diligent practise regime, she has achieved a fine balance between the opposition of control and freedom or dynamism opposition of control and freedom or dynamism in  the  “Now Here In Blue” and “Now Here-Becoming” series.

 ................................................................................................

Resonance by Brush Touches

Yoon Jin Sup

Art of Tansaekhwa

Now here - Becoming   PARK DAA WON

Art of Tansaekhwa

Now here - PARK DAA WON

 Understanding of Park Daa Won's recent works of art should premised on comprehension of her early works in advance. The reason is because when there are not so few artists who show the world of calligraphic abstraction, it should be explained what are Park Daa Won's artistic characteristics which form her paintings' basis in order for her works to be differentiated from others.

   Then where do the line drawings like the current ones of her --dashing off with one stroke of a brush--originate from First of all I would like to note its origin from her series of works she drew in the late 1990s, for drawings titled Interface which associate juvenile pictures show the world of play through free brush lines. 

Art of Tansaekhwa

Now here - PARK DAA WON

 They are not smuch the results of her will power to express or describe something obviously as the outcomes of revealing purposelessness of actions itself, which shows that the cardinal point of her drawings is play spirit. 

 Johan Huizinga, a Dutch historian of culture, coined a term Homo Ludens and noticed that this playfulness is a characteristic which is the basis of all cultures of human kind. Even she persisted that play was a concept which preceded culture and tried to prove that play was the most basic behavior of humans.

   Park Daa Won paid attention to playfulness in paintings through a series of works she produced in the late 1990s. Her paintings of those days, which reminded appreciators of juvenile paintings, attempted to explore the origin of her mental states through drawings by free lines, episodes lying behind the unconscious, and random behaviors which associate cave paintings. 

 The series of paintings she attempted in the early 2000s are the results of paying attention to brush lines originating from her early works, except for backgrounds. 

From this period, she changed her direction into providing line drawings by handwriting. They consist of single colors such as black, diluted black, or yellow. 

 That way her canvases became clearer and more bright. On the canvases of single colors, her spirit sorely concentrated on  modeling through performances and formation to be created by traces of performances. And it unfolded in the way of finding out an answer for a basic question of what a picture is, which is similar to a question asked by artists with a tendency of calligraphic abstraction.

Art of Tansaekhwa

Now here in Blue  - PARK DAA WON

   Her aesthetic traits in her paintings around that time are related with effects that appear when spontaneous touches are done on canvases. Such effects contain different looks according to the depths of colors ; for example, spreading effects associating dying of materials for colored cloth, or parting effects of the tip of a brush in the use of thick Chinese ink are representative. The atmosphere of calligraphic abstraction in her works is closely related with her personal background when she was a child and a youth. Her parents had a lot of interest in collecting works of art and books on the art, so she spent her youth surrounded by Western paintings and books on art. 

Her parents' collections include many great masters' pieces like Seo Byung Oh (1862-1935), who is a prominent figure in Yeongnam paintings in literary artists' styles, and Seo Dong Gyun. She was taught by Seo Dong Gyun  according to her mother's will, even though it lasted for a brief time period. At the time she engraved in her mind his teaching that lines are drawn by one's heart. However, this artist considers that more direct beginning of drawing such pictures was the shock she felt when she appreciated Sehando by Kim Jeong Hui in her college years. When she encountered this painting, she thought certain sort of thrill came in contact with some temperament inherent in her mind.

What do her spontaneous lines which she draw at one moment mean Lines drawn by an artist have their own meanings and looks. Evaluating a painting's grace, qualitative values, or artistry is up to professional interpreters like critics. It is true for judgment of aesthetic values. Then, what can judgement of her works be made based on First of all, I would like to pay attention to liberated aspects of lines which appear in relaxed consciousness.

This means that she started to pursue the state of clear mind--that is to say, nothing in Buddhism--beyond playful characteristics which had dominated her ; doesn't this mean the state of Nirvana while emptying one's mind.

Art of Tansaekhwa

Now here - Becoming  PARK DAA WON

    What is Nirvana According to one explanation, Nirvana is there is nothing with silence and so there is no form among the nature of Buddha. Because there is no form, there is nothing to do and there is no agony of living and dying, so it is pleasant. Nirvana is neither living nor dying. 

Because living things did not remove anxiety, they are born with good bodies due to good Karma of doing good work and born with bad bodies due to bad Karma of doing bad work. Whereas they undergo continuous pain while living and dying again and again, Buddha does not live nor die. So Buddha said Nirvana is pleasant.   

 Her works pursue states as they are, without any discrimination. As if performing self-discipline before drawing a painting in order to reveal the state of indiscrimination, she calms herself and fall into meditation. Her lines are free from the world's complicated judgments. So the lines she draw exist independently on a single, transparent background.

     Park Daa Won noted, I hope humans' time, history, and lives can be expressed between lines. Here if the time and history she mentioned means some universal beginning in humans' lives, the lines she drew would be some condensed analogy of them. For, as some stated, whereas a history is individual, the art like poetry or pictures are universal.

As the subject of her work now and here implies the overlapping of two chances of here we step on and now when we are breathing, she is opening the horizon from her existential and independent position. 

 Her paintings are statements of resonance revealed by touches of brushes. How are touches of brushes resonant Is it possible to introduce this word which shows auditory effects to modeling When a brush passes the surface of a plane and finally parts with it, even though the brush does not leave its trace, its aftereffect remains on the plane. It is as if the same kind of aftereffect has disappeared but wanders about remaining somewhere. 

 A silent event which occurred now and here--hic et nunc--causes a silent echo like a wavelength of a wave. A dot placed and a line drawn on the canvas brings about silent wavelengths. Her paintings are statement of resonances by touches of brushes that appear when dots and lines are done on the space of a canvas.