이계원

Wisdom-filled Quadrangles By Young - Mok Chung Art Historian My first impression of Ke - Won Lee’s paintings was that the hexahedrons scattered on monochrome-colored background evoked a sense of wisdom and cleverness. It seems as if these forms have been lifted off the flat picture plane, or they have been randomly placed on the canvas surface. Why do I get such impression? In order to find an answer to this question, it is necessary to have understanding of the 20 th Century painting or history of painting. Now let me examine the concept of allotropism he employed in his doctoral dissertation to explain the essential and physical traits of painting. The notable characteristic in Lee’s works is that he generated his own abstract style, which is “union of flat surface and solid forms” and “illusion through dislocation and shift,” that is “indexical-illusion” It is quite an abstract and modern approach that he mixed 3 dimensional forms with a conventional concept of illusion in representational painting. As another illusion is created by the real shadow of hexahedrons, the painting produces a symbolic effect of non-illusive illusion. The quadrangle shapes protrude to create a sense of dimension, so it can be easily referenced to the idea of dimensional sculpture. Lee’s pieces cross the border of painting and sculpture, like Hans Arp’s painted reliefs or Donald Judd’s minimalistic sculptures. Lee’s notion of ‘expansion’ is equivalent to postmodern idea of transcending genres. From this perspective, Ke-Won Lee’s works succeed the western tradition while he throws himself into the challenge to break away from it and delivers a solution at the same time. This is very clever. I can see a bright future for his wisdom-filled, clean-cut forms. INTERVIEW 2019. Q1, 현재의 작품을 통해 표현하고자 하는 주제는 무엇인가? 나의 작품제목: Allotropism(同質異形)은? 동질(同質)한 사람들의 서로 다른 차이(異形)를 회화표현의 요소로 삼아 조형화 시킨 것이다. 나의 작품의 조형적, 시각적 특징은 동질(同質)한 요소들이 서로 다른(異形)형식(version)과 변주(variation)를 만들어내는 것이다. 예를 들면, 숯(charcoal)과 다이아몬드(diamond)는 전혀 다른 외양을 가졌지만 하나의 원소인 탄소(carbon, 원소기호C, 원소번호 6번)로 구성되어있다는 공통점이 있다. 이것의 의미가 알로트로피즘(Allotropism, 同質異形,동질이형)이다. The subject matter of my Art work is Allotropism. Allotropism is a derivative word from allotrope. Allotropism means each of two or more different physical forms in which an element can exist. Basically I am interested in the human being. Despite the seemingly different forms of a human being, I focus on the uniformity in the same substance and thus define this in painting as 'aesthetics of homogeneity'. My Art work's visual and plastic distinction are different version and variation in the same essential elements. For example graphite, charcoal, and diamond are all allotrope of carbon.