동영상 링크
Interview
=#Chang_Soonup: sculpturer
-#Kim_Youngjai: Art Philosopher Ph.D
Bold: Narration
Forty-five solo exhibitions in forty years is not an easy task, moreover, diligent work paying no attention to the glorious career as a best-awarded painter and internationally invited artist is far more complicated.
-Definitely, your images come from nature, by watching and repeatedly cultivating your surroundings.
=Sure it is.
Chang Soon-up knows how to keep the harmony of artistry and popularity. Also, Chang is willing to share his world in open-minded with everyone in this society while spreading his artistic talent on canvas.
The conception of Space Construction
-Articles from France?
=Absolutely.
-Why didn't you stay and exhibit in Paris from then?
=What a regret! They offered an apartment to live in. Also, lots of exhibitions were suggested held worldwide.
-Frontpage looks gorgeous.
=It was shown at a gallery in Ginza, Tokyo. Both yellow wings of the figure were cut away but seem better. Next time, I'd try only Indian ink painting.
-Seems spacious, I think.
-I found stunning pine trees around your house, did you plant them?
=No trees when I settled, I planted one by one bought from the various regions including bamboo trees.
-How about planting plum blossoms?
=I planted. It will blossom in no time.
-Ah, that accounts for it! The flavor and scholarly fidelity of your works quite naturally come out from your taste and surroundings.
=All of the motives from nature appear in my painting. In old days, I used to draw Jangsung totem poles and ceramic ware, however, they are replaced with birds, cranes, and wild ducks in addition to the hundreds of flowers and fantasia trees.
(pause)
-Shall we go into the art world of an artist who lives in nature, draw his life, philosophy, and art from nature?
Art is a work to build an artistic zone of sympathy. Instead of hiding behind the wall of elitism, Chang joyfully and willingly paints a figurative theme, every moment as if taking three meals a day.
-The work behind you seems to be an abstract form from figurative motive.
=I destruct figure for a time being, but recently the abstract forms reunite with the figurative painting.
-Figurative and abstract paintings are none other than ways of expression for an artist, I think.
=For me, it depends on physical condition, health, and feeling.
-Such as Oriental and Occidental style is one of the choices for expression in Korea, What is your opinion?
=For me, expression is a concept of space construction spreading in front of an artist. So, I apply both the spreading Indian ink method and the dripping pigment method simultaneously. Since I used to draw on paper from early childhood, no discrimination lies between Hanji-Korean paper and canvas.
-This painting is emphasized by color patches so that the painting looks accentuated. Perhaps you work with a preliminary sketch...
=The title of the painting is "Adam & Eve" You can see the face on the front and side. I don't draw as scheduled by sketch but count on the impulse during the process.
=This work is...
-Totally different
=You see the plum blossom over there? Red and white flower, and here is a bird in the garden. Motives are free in my paintings.
Chang Soon-up organize space in his painting by combining transcendent and aesthetic consciousness of the Eastern and Western world. Concrete figures sometimes become hidden puzzle, sometimes create a new and free picture space by fusing Western material and Oriental blank space.
-When shaking hands, I wondered why your hands were so rough, however, no wonder it proves to be the valuable harvest of making a friendship with nature.
=There's a saying, "An onion will not produce a rose" However, man cannot live the autonomous life cycle of plants. So, I had to devote myself to art. I am always regretting to my son and daughter neglecting even warm-hearted talking, because of the painting job. My whole time has been occupied with painting except for sleeping and lecturing.
=Nothing can be replaced the painting job in my life. So, I couldn't make a week trip, at most a couple of days. Even I left Seoul in the morning and returned from Tokyo in the afternoon, staying only four or five hours. Whenever I meet people at exhibitions, they used to say a long time no see' kind of greeting. I replied with laughter 'I am living like a hermit, however, the fact is that I indulged in painting.
-So you choose painting materials quite naturally from your surroundings,
such as yellow soil. I've seen a yellow soil wall at another house.
= I keep a loose rein on materials.
-This painting is done with yellow soil.
=Yes, it is. The pine tree is one near the garden where cranes often fly around. Flowers bloom and the Sun rises from that direction. The painting started on the first day of 2009. So cow appears since this is the year of the cow. Through this sort of spontaneous expression, I feel I am the happiest man in the world.
- Merrily and happily, surely the others feel your happy feeling in your paintings. So sympathetic zones in feelings turn into the artistic zones in the art and art language for broader communication.
Finding Hidden Figures
-The fact is ...
=Look at the brook over the garden. It encircles my house like the river Seine.
Chang Soon-up admires the delicate impressions of the mountain and the river, and the wing strokes of the cranes and wild ducks, changing by light and wind from time to time.
-Like taking pictures with a camera, you install nature in your painting process through your aesthetic view, emotion, and happy feeling.
=If a figurative artist lives and works here, innumerable works can be made. Nature is the masterpiece itself. How dare man can create what nature does?
-You look like free from sketch.
=Reproduction gives in a spontaneous impulse in my work. This painting is full of joy. Rope-jumping children, a face, a desire to fly, a variety of faces, arms, and even breasts were drawn. Like a magician, I draw magic in my painting.
-I found another magic. You can stop whenever you think the work is done while other artists would fill all the canvas with pigments.
= Comfortable feeling comes from spontaneity. Flowers and ducks are juxtaposed with a variety of pigments and composed with a cozy feeling. Perhaps real life is more comfortable. Sometimes divided and unbalanced paintings are juxtaposed on a canvas; such as ink stain on the left side, and a figure on the right side.
=Let me show faces and long sleeves, and go down to the bottom, you can see the combined genitals of a man and a woman drawn. I am ashamed of myself for telling the truth.
=Nobody is capable of catching the figures, I am sure.
=No wonder. I explained after collectors bought a lotus-shaped female genitalia painting, in old days.
=In that painting, I wore a necktie on contrary to my no-tie habit. Perhaps revealing my subconsciousness of wearing the tight tie.
-I thought you experimented autonomy of the Indian ink, of the spreading, permeating, and destroying the normal ink applications. At your explanation, I began to realize hidden figures in your painting.
=Splendid colors of wild ducks are the theme of this painting where lotus and water lily bloom. There appears the Sun, Moon, fabulous phoenix, and dot-shaped flowers with full spontaneity.
-In fact, art is not an imitation of nature, but recreated nature of an artist.
=Nature is nothing but a teacher. You sure not to accept all, but create yours.
-Your creation seems not only to rise above the genre but also to upgrade the meaning of life and non-life.
=I made it a rule to control all the processes from the preparation. If I find a spontaneous material or well-done texture in the process, I used to leave it untouched and give an accent to fit the context of the canvas. Of course the standard changes from time to time.
Utilitarian Happiness
-Changing motives according to the situation, signifies that your painting has a solid goal in your painting and living. What is your ultimate purpose?
=I used to give deep thought to nature and materials and how they can be comfortable, happy, and beautiful in my painting.
-It seems that you feel worthwhile sharing utilitarian happiness with people through your painting.
=We should contribute ourselves to the welfare of our society. I feel happy when people hang my painting in their homes and enjoy it.
=An old lady shed tears when buying my work in a Tokyo exhibition. I asked. "Where do you hang this painting". She replied. "I want to amuse my diseased husband by hanging at his shrine. Isn't it impolite to the artwork?" Of course, I said " I am really appreciated and impressed"
=An elementary school student bought my painting at a Tokyo exhibition. I heard he would buy paintings with his allowances and part-time job income. Aren't the episodes signify a different cultural background?
More important than cultural soil is that Chang Soon-up's imaginative landscape and painterly language approached foreigners of a different generation with happy and deep sympathetic emotions.
2009-2022