Im jik-soon’s retrospective captures inner worlds through color
Summary and headline written by AI from the source article. How we work
Im Jik-soon (1921 to 1996), a leading figure in Korean modern figurative painting, is being honored with a retrospective exhibition at the SeokpaJeong Seoul Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea.
The exhibit marks the 30th anniversary of the artist’s death and displays over 100 of his works, including oil paintings of women, flowers, and landscapes created from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Im Jik-soon gained recognition after winning the Presidential Award at a government-sponsored art competition in 1957, and later led the Honam art scene while teaching at Chosun University in Gwangju. Im Jik-soon uniquely built forms by juxtaposing colors rather than outlining and filling them. A year-long stay in Paris in 1973 influenced his work, inspiring him with Impressionism’s focus on light and color, as seen in his painting “Contemplation” from that year.
His later paintings from the 1980s featured brighter colors and blended subjects, like women and flowers, without defining lines, reflecting his desire to express the “essential colors” rather than fleeting moments of nature. The retrospective concludes with his final work, “Palm Tree” (1996), depicting palm trees he observed during a trip to the United States.
Alongside Im Jik-soon’s work, the museum also hosts a contemporary art exhibition featuring pieces from 28 artists, with both shows running until February 14th of the following year.
