“Painterly (繪畵的),” as articulated by the art historian Heinrich Wölfflin, designates a mode distinct from the linear, in which contours are emphasized and forms are rendered in a sculptural manner; rather than presenting clear distinctions and outlines, it is a condition in which only the phenomena of light and shade, color, patches, and movement are expressed. Furthermore, according to his account, all art follows a psychophysical law of development, proceeding from a linear condition toward a painterly one.

“Sa-saeng (사생)” is a homonym. One refers to “Sa-saeng (寫生),” and the other to “Sa-saeng (四生),” the latter being a Buddhist classification that divides all living beings into four categories according to their modes of birth. First, “Sa-saeng (寫生)” does not simply denote the act of depicting real space or natural scenery as it appears; rather, it is an attempt to render painterly what has been subjectively perceived and reflected within the mind. In this sense, the work does not remain at the level of a structural understanding of phenomena (事象), but instead seeks a condition in which sa-saeng (寫生), sa-sim (寫心), and memory (記憶) coexist simultaneously.

The other “Sa-saeng (四生)” concerns how the objective landscape of nature, together with energies that are not visible yet perceptible, operates within subjective memory (記憶) and becomes translated into painterly expression. That is, nature, which contains within it the cyclical principle of sa-saeng (四生), undergoes processes of generation, deconstruction, trace, and extinction, and these processes are sa-saeng (寫生) through the use of pure formal elements and articulated in a painterly and harmonious manner.

This exhibition presents works from the 'Painterly Sa-saeng' series, developed from 2009 to the present, alongside the more recent 'The Sun series. The 'Painterly Sa-saeng' series is concerned with visualizing a mode of flexible thinking that extends from the intimate interior space of everyday life toward external psychological and physical spaces. “The Sun” series, initiated more recently, translates into work those moments of perception that arose while gazing at the sky during a walk, when a sense of doubt emerged regarding the very form of the sun.

Moreover, the light of the sun illuminates everything, concealing nothing, and thus stands as a witness to truth, while, following its own trajectory, it continuously enacts a form of sa-saeng. In this exhibition, such newly discovered awareness and perception of the sun are presented for the first time through these works.

References

• 《‘회화적'으로 ‘사생'하다 (A Painterly Approach to Drawing)》