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A Small But Grand Narrative Called Everyday Life

“Drawing” is the most primal act of humans. One art historian said that mankind survived because we are homographicus, humans who draw. Looking at pictures drawn by someone we can hardly call human from thousands or tens of thousands of years ago, we can’t help but come to respect it. Drawings must have been the only method of communication when no languages or letters existed. Drawings were the language and letters.

The pictures drawn on dark cave walls under dim candlelight contain the keyword of survival, their wishes, and the key that connects us to the past. A picture is like a history book. There is scenery of the era when the artist lived, the artist’s perspective of that scenery, and the times of someone’s life. These trivial times, which have no need to be recorded as an epic, unwaveringly and neatly stack together to become their own “era.” The everyday scenery of six artists from Korea, Lebanon, and Syria has become the record of 20th-century Asia. Shining on Your Days calmly depicts the ordinary but grand aspects of the times.

Korea, Lebanon, and Syria all experienced a colonial period in the early 20th century and have a common denominator in that Western art was introduced during this time. Western art was brought into Korea through Japan during the Japanese occupation, while Lebanon and Syria were directly under the rule of France. The artists in this exhibition personally experienced the confusing times of the 20th century.

These are the days of the artists who continue their lives with equanimity after the storm passed through their country. The scenery of ordinary days is now captured in paintings. Paintings embody the times and color and build up trifling marks. The scenery of stationary days pile up one by one. They are the same but different landscapes, where people who lived that era, the days for longing freedom, and beautiful everyday life that passes by peacefully exist.

Same Era, Different Times of Six Artists

As you pass the entrance of the exhibition hall into a darker space, some pictures stop you and draw your attention. They are the faces of the six artists: Kim Whanki, Oh Ji-ho, Yim Jik-Soon, Amine El Bacha (Lebanon), and Fateh Moudarres (Syria). The fierce moments of the most influential artists of their generations are captured in photographs and in someone’s voice, but the works they left behind interact with new subjects all along.

The lighting that silently illuminates the works in darkness recalls the past. Korean artists including Kim Whanki, Oh Ji-ho, Yim Jik-Soon, and Cheon Kyeong-ja are closely related to the southern regions. Cheon Kyeong-ja, who was born in Goheung, Jeollanam-do, Kim Whanki, who was born in Sinan, Jeollanam-do, Oh Ji-ho, who was born in Hwasun, Jeollanam-do, and Yim Jik-Soon, who was born in Goesan, Chungcheonbuk-do but worked at Chosun University, all went to Japan to study during the Japanese colonial period. Amine El Bacha of Lebanon, West-Asia and Fateh Moudarres of Syria studied in France. They experienced the same era of colonization and lived different times of struggles to find their artistic identity. The scenery of daily life painted by these artists holds fierce yet peaceful times.

Oh Ji-ho was a nationalist who resisted the Japanese Empire and an artist who pioneered Western impressionism into Korean impressionism by painting the warm landscapes of the southern regions. Although he used art supplies from the West, it was the full energy and beautiful colors of Korean nature that completed his works. To Kim Whanki who was born and raised in the arms of the beautiful sea in Sinan, Jeollanam-do, the ocean was his roots.

Continuing his career as an artist in France and the United States after studying in Japan, what he tenaciously held onto was his own roots. The blue in a few exhibited pieces evoke the vast sea of Sinan. Yim Jik-Soon called the magician of colors, worked at Chosun University and greatly contributed to the development of Western art in the Jeolla-do region. His works that searched for colors and light in nature gradually turned to inside, pursuing the essence of the subject. Born in Goheung of Jeollanam-do, Cheon Kyeong-ja charted her own path as a painter of Eastern art despite the growth of Western art and the manifestation of abstract art after liberation. Faded black ink and traces of old sketches reveal the delicate touches of the artist.

Amine El Bacha from Lebanon in West Asia studied in France and worked in Italy and Spain, but the foundation of his work is based on everyday scenes of the place where he lives. Following the eyes of the artist ingrained in warm and vivid colors, it is like you are looking at scenes of Lebanon in the 20th century. At the end of the exhibition hall is the works of Fateh Moudarres of Syria. The paintings rise from the dark wall like still images in movies. The dim figures on the thick screen like a child’s painting are full of narratives. He studied in Rome and Paris, but his works are rooted in his homeland and talks about families, society, and politics.

For Brilliant and Ordinary Days

As you slowly walk along the works on display, you can see the scenery viewed from the perspective of these artists, and the places where their gazes fell will draw you closer to the inner world of artists. Your attention gradually shifts from the nature and spirit of Korea, including the scenery of the southern region, to the history of Asia. Their everyday lives are orderly laid into the paintings one by one.

Each painting bears a grand time and vast landscape. The seas, islands, and ports, as well as mountains, plains, and gardens resonate in different colors and shapes. As daily lives gather to create traces of history, the landscape of the era builds up from the smallest grain of sand and a single drop of water. Let’s walk through the exhibition hall slowly rather than rush through it. Look at Mudeungsan Mountain, gaze upon the islands peacefully standing on the open sea, sit in some library in Granada, stroll around between the houses of Lebanon, and walk along the country roads of Syria. That’s how you travel between times along the paintings. You are now sympathizing with the bright and ordinary moments of daily lives. Maybe today will mark another trajectory of life.

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