Jonlip Lee: A Happy Moment of Life in the Garden

Youngtaik Bhak (Professor, Kyunggi University, Art Critic)

Jonlib Lee presents us a happy and romantic moment of life that human beings would enjoy in the nature. It seems like a diary written after a day in the garden or a postcard sent from that place. His painting is absolutely beautiful, decorative and sweet. It is also very literary. By being so, the painting reminds the viewers of a certain story or context. It visualizes a story as picture books do. Each work bears circumstances and stories like fruits and a scene can conjure up varying ideas and stories. Paintings before modern time in fact were literary as they were based on certain texts. In the western culture, they mostly pertained to Greek and Roman myths or biblical stories. Epic stories and legends were represented in painting and sculpture. In the same vein, Koreans too visualized myths, Buddhist doctrine and Confusion texts. Painting in the past in effect relied on specific texts and hence it was meant to be read.

On the contrary, contemporary art eliminates the story and deals only with the art itself. Therefore, literature is banished. Art is only concerned with internal or visual issues while expunging subject-matter or contents. So called "untitled" that is now a common title in contemporary art detests this trend. It is undeniable that art has become a state to be seen or something complex and stale that needs to be registered in a realistic manner. For this reason, it is not unusual the long expelled story and literariness is summoned back into painting. Lee is also one of those examples. 

The artist's story effortlessly reminds us of the words such as solitude, love, romance and happiness; and his painting captivates us. The image is more or less conventional but amiable. He visualizes a certain happy moment. He is reminiscing a relaxed and quiet moment in the nature. His painting commemorates the moment of jubilation. The space in the painting is always forest or a park which is filled with greens and flowers. The exuberant colors and varying forms of plants are interpreted in color plates and simplified forms. They condense and signify the plants. The diverse forms of plant are turned into a few types and rendered in colors and image. However, the individuality of image in the process of condensing plant forms is required as much as the cliche arrangement of the situation needs to be abandoned.      

A young couple walk into the scene arranged by the artist. The love and yearning of young lovers and their romantic youth brings the viewers back to their own youth. Lee's painting shows the happy moment and recalls the longed memories. The figures look like actors in the backdrop created by the artist; a young couple is making their episode in the stage of garden. This scenery of ardent love is the space of nature separated from the mundane world. People always seek happiness in the nature. However, nature is not only beautiful but also cruel, rough and at times threatening our life. It is ambivalent as it is also very blessing. Human beings are living in this nature and trying to be happy. They have also attempted to achieve this dream in a man-made garden, as well as in the nature itself, and represented it in painting. The landscape paintings are fruit of this desire.

The very first garden is thought to be made for food. After grueling, dangerous and aimless wandering, humans entered a different level of living as they started to stay and cultivate the land. As the nature was managed, the concept of garden came up. According to Gilles Clement, the French horticulturist, the first garden is a vegetable filed. In the provincial areas in Europe the word garden indicates a vegetable field. The rest is scenery. When the scenery becomes a subject of composition, people call it a park. The first garden was an area defined by boundaries in the nature. The term garden originated from a German word "garten" that meant a fenced land (in Latin, hortus conclus). The land enclosed by fence was suitable for protecting precious property such as vegetable, fruits, flower, animals and any means of living. At any times, a good garden is supposed to protect them securely. That garden is the origin of paradise. "Paradise" came from the Persian word "pairidaeza" indicating a fenced are. A garden was started when people who had barren land planted trees and made fountains to resist its impotence and to imitate the nature. Hence the paradise or the garden is above all a fortress and a sanctuary. In this artificial nature, a man-made park and garden, people reminisce the time when they used to live in the nature. They also run into the nature to alleviate the brutal and distressed life. This seems to be the reason why the painting of scenery and garden is appealing.         

In the gardens and parks that Lee creates, a woman is walking alone in appreciation of her surroundings, reading under the flowers or riding a bicycle. She at times plays a trumpet-like instrument, looks at the flower above her head or resting under the shade. A couple of lovers rides bicycles together or whisper their secrets to each other. A peaceful and leisure time is set up. This bucolic scene is imagined by the artist. He seems to consider it an image of happiness. I am reminded of landscape with human figures. Our traditional painting always shows what a humane life in the nature as well as what the happiness of life is. Lee also consoles himself by painting the happiest moment and wants to share that moment with his viewers. I believe that is the essence of his painting (gardens).