Images of Life

“Expressing with words means embracing faults,” was this stated by Lao-Tzu? I agree to this statement, when I articulate in words. This means, I have to be concise in words to reduce my mistakes in describing the works of Kyung Youl Yoon, the artist.

Yoon’s artworks are filled with images of his life journey. Images or visions that he gained starting from his childhood to youth, and afterwards until today, his images, time, and life were blended together, and reflected directly on the surface of the works.

Through life, many aspects are formed, and these are fused together with Yoon’s distinctive brush strokes. To western people like me, his works look obscure, but to him for sure, they are his unchanging marks and meaningful signs. Therefore, colors, marks, and images in the art pieces are like expressions resulted by his personal life, and they support the idea and necessity of creation.

Kyung Youl Yoon has created images he has experienced of, which are various yet oriental from the land of legends to unfamiliar country. In other words, the forms are from the artist’s unconsciousness, so they may be in simple forms. Cities, piers, his wife and daughters, animals, plants, landscapes, rivers, and streams; these images blend into each other, and appear in a complication. The heaviness and thickness of the works bring people to silence, because they are visually heavy and deep.

In this silence, I often think that words restrict the images, and they may restrict Yoon’s art. To prevent from adding or subtracting his content, I think I might have to stop with words. It’s not Abstract Expressionist or impressionist. His artworks need to be described simply, borrowing his name, as “Kyung Youl Yoon’s Art.”

ADOLFO CASTANO
ABC CULTURAL ART NEWSPAPER CRITIC
MADRID SPAIN