 
Kim Tae Jung
The Body and Soul of Calligraphy
December 10 -December 27, 2002
Calligraphy evolved over 2000 years ago as a system
of written ideograms combining elements of divination,
ritual and moral authority. Its structure is understood
to articulate patterns that correspond to the cosmic
order of heaven and earth and yet each instance
of calligraphy encompasses historical and social
ideas as well as the personality of the calligrapher.
The idea that calligraphy embodies exemplary conduct
is connected to the rituals of political leaders
that were recorded by priestly scribes. As calligraphy
shifted from the public sphere toward the more personal
realm of private expression connoisseurship valorized
the particular eloquence and formal idiosyncrasies
of individual calligraphers.
Kim Tae Jung refers to his work as a “return
to nature” and over the past thirty years
he has excavated calligraphy to engage the raw
aesthetic force codified within traditional scholarly
lineages of imitation and innovation. His performances,
where he wields huge brushes over cloth laid on
the floor, underscore the immediacy of calligraphy
as inscription without correction, and energy
made manifest in line. The resulting compositions
dismantle the historical linkage between image
and form through which pictorial and graphic elements
are combined to represent abstract ideas. In place
of cohesive structures the artist creates fluid
fields of linear motion that rejuvenate the magical
efficacy of primal imagery.
Calligraphy flows from an extraordinary convergence
of body and mind and it is not surprising that
Kim Tae Jung meditates before each performance.
He thus possesses a clear mind to paint images
that are without a predetermined meaning. That
is to say his concern is not with what an image
represents but with how it engages the imagination.
In this way the viewer replaces the calligrapher
in producing his or her own “images of mind.”
 Back
to the List
|
