1. 일중 김충현선생 초상(일중기념사업회 소장)
2. 월전 장우성선생 초상(이천시립 월전미술관 소장)


'Portrait' drawn by Kim Hyun Chul

Our ancients regarded drawing portrait is the same as drawing light. Sa-jo(寫照) means drawing light. That is to draw a shape exposed by light and to capture light of the inner part of a person. When we usually say the word Not-Bit or An-Saek(顔色), which means the color of the face, we get to focus not just on the features, but on the energy that bursts from the inner world. Each person has his own face and by that face, they reveal their inner side or every part of the person. The face reveals light. That light unfolds his life and career, every curves and wrinkles one has experienced through his life. It flows in all directions. Something that is filled inside the body is emitted in that way. Face is also equal to text, so that we have to read it. Only looking at the face is insufficient. It is a task to read and study with great effort, understand in great depth, and go inside one's heart like an abyss and inside one's mind. Meeting and seeing every soul and light a person exhales, that is a task to encounter someone's face and to draw and appreciate a portrait. It is something to look back on one's self shown by that light and spirit. So looking at someone's portrait is to understand human genuinely and to question the basis of the existence of one's self. To us, portrait doesn't just stay as a face painting. It is considered as a painting filled with soul or spirit. It is not an ordinary image, it substitutes an existing human and has soul inside. Image doesn't just stay as an image. It takes the place of the real person and confronts the absence of the real being and exists in front of our eyes again, which is a strange experience. So the proper function of portrait is first to depict the subject as it is. It is truly showing actuality and personality of the subject. Ancient 'Golsangbup'(骨相法-method od fortune-telling by showing the skeletal structure) is that, and 'Ehyungsashin'(以形寫神), which means to show the inner world by depicting the subject is the proper function of portrait paintings. This not just ends in simple realistic depiction. It is to show the person's inner world with outer illustration and that is the essential point of portrait painting. We call it 'Jeonshin'(傳神). Jeonshin, as it is called, is to express the inner spirit of the nature world of human or an object. One of the Chinese great artists, Gogaeji, said that drawing men were the most hardest part in painting, especially the depiction of the 'eye' where the profound level should be revealed, is the toughest part. Sometime ago, when I met Kwon Ok Yeon, he said he had been drawing girls' faces for decades but it was still hard to draw. When painting a person's face, adding a little more brush stroke makes the face worldly, and a little less stroke makes the face not resembling the real face or looks like a comic book character, so he gets to sit in front of the painting thinking all day long. So drawing someone's face perfectly is a hard and difficult task to do. Kim Hyun Chul pulls his works into contemporary portrait paintings by entirely inheriting and copying portrait method of Chosun Dynasty. I saw his portrait paintings at Hanbyukwon Gallery in year 2008. His paintings were filled with tension of spirit as cold as ice shown through his moderated lines, pure and soft coloring, person's elegant and strict personality as we can see in remarkable portraits of Chosun Dynasty. Above all, they were sophisticated and fresh. They were paintings filled with neat and calm mind. I felt what we call grace. That is not just about the painting itself, it is about perceiving the character of the painter. Kim tried to be sincere about traditional portrait method and by that, he tried to paint the portrait of contemporary people and the people he knows well. There was some kind of refreshing spirit certainly different from lots of portraits that I have seen before. The quality of the work and the verisimilitude of the portrait was well done. And most of all, it was impressive that he didn't try to show desire to compulsively restore or inherit the traditional portrait method. Then, as time passed by, I visited his studio located in Ansan, near Seoul and I saw some of his portraits paintings. I haven't seen his portrait works for two years. He drew portraits of faces he wanted to resemble, faces of people that are respected, people around him and his acquaintances. First, it would be easy to show the inner world or mind of a person he relatively knows well. There were portraits of a couple that live no little years together, artist Walljeon Jang Woo Sung and Iljung Kim Chung Hyun and an educator Song Sul Dang. Next, portraits of Buddhist monks were located in his studio. Portraits of Kyung Huh, Hae Wall, Hyang Gok and Ja Woon, which are so-called 'Josasang'(祖師像) and Manhae Han Yong Woon were placed there. Manhae's face is drawn as a monk's face that Kim wanted to draw. Most of the portraits of priests were ordered from the Buddhist temple. Some of the portraits of priests are already drawn by other artists, but Kim draws portraits by determining the right posture, props, colors and techniques according to the person's past days and personalities. In every painting, the expression of the person is strict and the posture is elegant but rigorous. Pictures elaborated with delicate lining and subdued coloring are shining clearly. Kim drew Walljeon and Iljung who are remarkable artists because they have some aspects that Kim could respect. For example, I think Kim drew the portrait of Walljeon Jang Woo Sung, the last painter in the literary artist´s style who was proficient in poetry, calligraphy and painting, because Kim is a younger student who majored in oriental painting and a junior artist who strictly studied historical evidence according to the Chosun's traditional paintings and calligraphic works and also because Walljeon was someone meaningful that Kim respected his spirit and his art world. Walljeon's portrait seems to show the face and spirit of the strict and stern artist in the literary artist´s style. With delicate depiction and devoting coloring skills of Jang's body and face on silk, Kim made the portrait completely into traditional portrait method. Kim Hyun Chul constantly copied portraits that our ancestors left and he learned that method and soul. By this, he drew contemporary people and people he wanted to respect. The depiction is concentrated on the face, the lines of the clothing are handled in a simple way, so that the audience can keep an eye on the glaring eyes. Just like this, it would be difficult if the person who draws the portrait doesn't have the admiration or respect of the targeted person. The reason he drew Manhae is in that. He wanted to give shape to the great men's spirit, eyes and minds and eventually reflecting a personal will to resemble that face. reflect Actually, drawing a portrait of a person means that the person in the drawing should be respected by the future generation or significant. Then now a days, who are the people that should be drawn into portraits? And who, in what way determines it? Kim Hyun Chul, to study traditional painting, inherited and developed from landscape painting of 'Jin Kyung' period, genre painting to portrait paintings. He is known as an artist who has constantly studied, 'Immo',(臨模=the process of studying by copying other's drawing and making it their own) researched and produced traditional portrait painting that requires delicate human expression. He learned portrait method that has been lost for years by copying the portrait of a king, meritorious retainer and a nobleman in traditional paintings. As you can see, portraits of Chosun Dynasty is proud of its excellent level. Face is colored with light color and the black eyes are something out of the common. Clothing decorated with thick coloring, and fancy 'HyungBae' are good to see and when the portraits are added with colorful frame, the visual effect is outstanding. 'HyungBae' (embroidered patches on the breast and on the back of official uniforms) method is very splendid and it is a work with tremendous effort so it is very touching. Those art works are paintings drawn by the best artist of that period with the best skills, so the research and 'Immo' of these works is to study the best part of various painting methods and skills of the Chosun Dynasty and also to realize the change of the sense of beauty of the period. He says that painting is not something that is shown, it is something to look into. Just like looking at the face. He is moving forward by looking at remanent portraits and understanding the research data and art books of those portraits. So far, he has ranged over many of the past painting methods and techniques worthy of learning. Yet, he says that he is on the continuation of that lesson. When time passes by, he believes that those techniques would turn out into his own individual and creative painting methods. He added clear and pure energy of color with stone pigments and concise lining method by 'Baechae'(painting on the backside of the paper or silk) to show the truth of 'Junshin'(showing the inner world of the person). He realizes a three-dimensional effect of the face by adding slender lines with precise brush strokes. He handled the lines of the clothes concise and simple, so that he depicted someone's face profusely. Each of the faces gives the audience some kind of echo. As I said before, he considered that there are two drawing techniques of traditional paintings that are surely of use, various use of brushes and coloring skills of deep-color pigment style widely used in court paintings. He tries to inherit and develop these two styles by entirely becoming proficient at both and to draw something that encompasses today's aesthetic consciousness. Genre that encompasses these two methods is traditional portrait, so that is why he now draws portraits with great effort.

Park Young Taek (Professor of Kyung-Gi University & Art Critic)

Translated by Soo Yun Jun