Portrait- The World of Jeon Shin (drawing the inner world into portrait)
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  Kim Hyun Chul spent more than 10 years drawing 'Immo' (the process of studying by copying other's drawing and making it their own) paintings, sketching from nature and exploring the nature in succession of 'San Su'( landscape focused on mountains and waters), genre paintings and portraits which were drawn through the 'Jin Kyung'(drawing the real landscape of Korean nature) period. His consistent effort owes much to Choi Wan Soo, his mentor, and 'Kan Song' Museum colleagues' advice and correction.

  Kim already showed the 'Jin Kyung' landscape style in his exhibitions, and was beyond just drawing realistically. He understood the traditional landscape drawing with figurative interpretation. Kim Yoo Suk commented that Kim had found out traditional landscape masters' insights and drawn it on his paintings and sought for the genre called 'San Su'. In result of the seeking, he found his way of analyzing landscape in comfortable and natural ways and that viewpoint shows Kim's imaginations and consciousness about 'Jin Kyung' landscape.

  Now Kim is putting effort to recover the forgotten portrait method by researching and getting data to pursue the world of 'Chosang Jeon Shin', (putting the inner world into portrait) which was one of realistic traditions shown through the 'Jin Kyung' period. Kim is studying about this 'Chosang Jeonshin' because Chosun's portrait was developed mostly around 'Jin Kyung' period which showed picturesque accomplishment and has a unique attraction one can never find in Chinese portraits. Concentrated lines that form the outline of drawing, colors that don't distract ones eyes and the graceful postures are the factors that show the elegance and character of the person on the portrait. Chosun's portraits changed according to Korean emotions and cultures and became an indigenous style. These portraits have some reasons for Koreans to be proud of their culture.

  Kim researched about the 'Immo' of portraits, 'Baechae'(painting on the backside of the paper), the quality of the materials, and coloring tools. With this effort, he recovered traditional style and tried different methods to establish new portrait skills that fit to the reality. By drawing Immo pictures, he interpreted original paintings, learned the skeletal structure, observed various types of colors & size of the pigments and checked the condition of the pigments to find out if they sticked to the painting. He selected the colors and to bring those into relief, he used 'Baechae' so the picture had pure but deep effect and texture difference which was done in Kim's attempt. ‘Baechae’ prevents painting to be peeled off, and also balances the strength of the silk. ‘Baechae’ helps the colors stick to the silk and the stained marks don't show on the front side. Also the color painted on the backside penetrates through the silk and reinforces the shading and the colors on the front side so that the colors on the painting are profound.

  Kim understood about the merits and characteristics of the traditional portrait. He is also experimenting methods to make the portrait of real people as an archetype. However, when learning these methods, what is important is how we accept the merits of the traditional portraits to real life. The merits found in traditional portraits are as followings; realistic expression ․ the honesty of depicting the way artist sees through his eyes ․ expressing cultured and educated character of a person which shows the inner world into the painting ․ naturally expressing the three-dimensional effect by drawing the face and body in twisted angle. The face is illustrated with delicate brush strokes by ‘Baechae’ and expressed with light skin color and clothes outline drawn in 'Chul Sun Myo' method(drawing clothes outlines like wire). Traditional portrait concentrated on the person's depiction and by that reason, the background wasn't expressed.

  In Kim Hyun Chul's portrait paintings, he drew people that look ordinary but they are actually extraordinary people. They are drawn the front side of the face and especially  Lee Won Jo's portrait is drawn the right side of the face. Front side portraits tell us that he had confidence making the face in three dimensions with shading and coloring according to the person's skeletal structure.

  When you analyze Kim's portrait, you can find out that he first colored lightly in brown, shading and outlining the five sensory organs. With the three-dimensional effect, he depicted the face wrinkles, pores and spots realistically to show the aged skin. The skin was depicted with verisimilitude but didn't use excessive expressions. He thought that 19-20 century's formulaic portrait was lifeless with overload depiction so he captured the most idealistic Chosun paintings.

  As the hair is an important feature that decides the personality and looks, Kim drew with small brushes with effort and depicted the person lively but well-featured. In order to express the impression of an aftershave man, he drew short hair to show person's characteristics. Kim even cared for one hair of the person's eyebrow.

  For the eye which is considered to catch the person's mind, Kim drew the outline of cornea, and painted lighter close to the pupil and emphasized the pupil relatively. This is the same method of the late Chosun's portrait paintings. On the light part of the pupil, he added impressive yellowish feeling like temple drawing or emperor's portrait used to depict brightness of the eye by gold, painted on the back of the paper.

  Clothes is rather drawn to emphasize the person's character than realistic expression by limited clothes texture depiction. On the portrait of <Lee Won Jo>, Kim depicted with clear outline in scholar's appearance. On the portrait of <Park Taek Yong> and <Lim Ok Im>, he used open-hearted drawing technique to show simple and plain looks. On the portrait of < Kim Kum Duck> and <Choi Yoon Im>, he drew with light colors to show morality. On the portrait of <Choi Song Sul Dang>, Kim drew delicate silk pattern, elegant curved lines of clothes which expressed dignity of the person.

  Kim's portrait is a half-length figure so he didn't have to draw hands. If he depicted old man's wrinkled and aged hands, he could have shown the person's real life. Also portrait has to strictly record the real life of a person, but has to control the beauty and the ugliness which question us about the fundamental attitude toward portraits. To delicately draw even one short hair and express weakness of a person is a traditional method and the artist needs to find out how that can be conveyed and progressed through real life.

 On the portrait of <Choi Wan Soo>, Kim drew the eyes vividly that show the clear and profound character. He depicted short hair with small brushes and by drawing the closed lips smoothly, the viewer can feel the person's spirit and intelligence. Overall, the portrait is in stable condition but the body size is too exaggerated so accuracy of human body structure and precise perspective is requested. Kim needs to take an objective view of the person.

  On the portrait of <Ja Woon Dae Yul Sa>, Kim expressed sublimity of Ja Woon Dae Yul Sa. The face is suitably sized in a long oval shape which shows gentle character but sharp eye expression and a strong will is put in the face so the viewer can feel dignity of Ja Woon. The portrait has massive weight around the shoulder line. Greenish yellow sash is wrapped around Ja Woon and showed his clear mind with delicate patterns. On the whole, the outline of sash is drawn simple without complexity.

  Kim Hyun Chul  gave life to the Chosun portraits' beauty and tried to convey the world of Jeon Shin entirely. Kim is broadening the footsteps of his real life by learning about the past and catching the spirit of the person on the portrait.


  Ryu Chul Ha (Curator of Icheon Wall-Jeon Museum)