Kim Ae Ran's Art

-The Images in Primary Colors Triggering an Upsurge in Emotion

By Shin Hang-seop / Art Critic 

One uses a knife in oil painting because the use of the knife is effective in expressing texture. A thick texture is one of the hallmarks of oil painting. A knife in oil painting plays a role similar to a bricklayer's trowel, a tool used for spreading substances such as cement, plaster, or mortar. Although a gentle, delicate expression is impossible, like that from a brush, the use of the knife gives rise to special visual images by applying paints as a whole. Keen, sleek knife-marks bring about a visual effect in color formation when using pure color.

 Kim Ae Ran's recent work crates a world apparently different from her previous work, by her using the knife. With a frequent use of pure colors, hues in her painting appear splendid. Her paintings are so pervaded with primary colors we can consider her scenes flower gardens. Her paintings are visually intense and clear. There are not ambiguous. vague images. All images in her painting are clear and vivid with primary colors. This clear impression is associated with the use of the knife. When using a knife, a premise to apply pure colors is required because blending paint is not easy with a knife unlike using brushes. That is to say, it is much easier to create secondary, tertiary colors by mixing paints with brushes. On the other hand, it is not easy to make subtle neutral tints, even when blending paints on a pallet with the knife. Using the knife is thus presupposes a use of pure colors.

 The primary color in the images derives largely from subject matter color, such as those of flower or fruit. Some works address flowers as subject matter, but most of Kim's paintings feature scenes she met in nature and travel destinations, with scenes partially depicted in primary colors, but her paintings are nevertheless described as portrayed in primary colors. This expression is more emphatic and overstated than reality. In other words, this expression stems from her pictorial renditions. Kim adopts primary colors to underline visual beauty echoing requirements within painting. Primary color images are quite different from realistic colors found in natural and urban scenes. Based on the visible within her eyes, Kim adopts primary hues instead of realistic colors in accordance with her pictorial ideas.

 Detailed renditions are often abbreviated due to her use of knives and primary colors. Minute depictions possible with the brush are impossible with the knife. The knife - made of hard metal - is useful in putting paint on canvas but is limited in portraying fine, gentle images. But, it is favorable for intense, vigorous, and hard-hitting expressions, applying pure color to the canvas. As seen in her work, dull yet vigorous and lively knife touches, sensible in rough, thick texture, offers visual pleasure. Her hues are splendid and visually appealing with lots of pure color. In addition, the effective use of complementary color-contrast makes her colors look more intense. That is why her flowers appear much more colorful and abundant than real ones.

 In the exhibition Kim shows work different to her previous work, composed and somewhat cold-hearted. This extensive change is amazing; impossible, without her determination to disentangle herself from her previous work. This shift means her perspective toward life has changed. This may be associated with her desire for unrestricted expression. She probably realized she could experience a more expanded world by escaping fixed notions of painting that trammeled her. She has naturally embraced primary color images through change in her perspective toward painting and life.

 Kim's recent works scattered with primary color images is impressive in their liberal color arrangements indifferent to realistic colors. Especially in some large pieces featuring the Alps in the Switzerland, the sky is painted in red, completely indifferent to realistic colors. These works thus offers visual experience entirely different form realistic paintings. Such unrealistic color scheme can be spice and magic in the  formative world of painting. Due to the red sky or skies in monochromes such as pink and indigo in stark contrast with permanent snow, viewers feel they are seeing a completely different world.

 Of the many European scenes she has portrayed, Kim renders medieval castles, with an antique patina, to exude a completely different atmosphere. Of course, such European buildings are beautiful as they are, but her use of primary hues never causes any awkwardness. Their beauty in from seems to allow her use of primary colors quite naturally. The Italian scenes from the shores of the Mediterranean are subject matter applicable for primary colors. The mottled village scenes at the seaside in contrast with the dark blue sea are expressed in more vivid primary color images. Of course, aesthetic elements found in Western European medieval architectural structures especially in France also accord with  primary hues.

 Her still-life paintings featuring flowers appear extremely showy to be called a feast of primary hues. The pure colors used exude brightness. In these still-life paintings colorful flowers appear as more intense images with the background in intense monochrome. These paintings generate lively energy of life, stimulating viewers' eyes and mind and triggering their aspirations for life. At the moment they meet her flowers, they can feel an upsurge in emotion. This can be said a pictorial magic transcending any aesthetic feeling we often feel some mysterious beings. Some magic is in her primary color images of flowers leading our mind and body to a turbulent state.

 Her figure paintings resulted from her impression of India, and are alsd tremendously harmonious with primary colors. This is probably because the sari, traditional costume Indian women wear are usually in primary colors. Landscapes featuring a forest path also bring about a unique atmosphere with her use of similar hues. Likewise, her recent works provide visual effects by her using the knife; a visual more enriched pleasure through an interweaving of texture and primary color images. The works talk with lively energy stimulating the will to live. At the moment of seeing her work we can experience an upsurge in emotion as if latent desire is likely to explode.