The Kim Tschang-Yeul Art Museum Jeju is hosting a special exhibition titled “Recurrence, Returning Again,” which will run until August 11th.

This exhibition showcases pieces from Kim Tschang-Yeul (1929-2021), an artist renowned for his “water drops” paintings, which reflect Eastern philosophy and spirituality. Kim’s “Recurrence” series, which notably includes the Thousand Character Classic alongside his signature water drops, has been praised for opening a new realm of thought by integrating traditional Eastern thought and spirituality.

The exhibition “Recurrence, Returning Again” focuses on this series, reflecting on broad Eastern philosophical and spiritual themes. It also explores the deep longing for his homeland and country that Kim experienced while abroad, illuminating the connections between his life and his art.

Painter Kim Tschang-Yeul settled in Paris in 1969 and first presented his water drop painting “Incident at Night” at the Salon de Mai in 1972. Since then, he has focused on water drops as his sole subject, establishing an aesthetic consciousness rooted in Eastern traditions and centered on the philosophy of egolessness (無我論的).

Initially, he painted water drops on blank canvases, but to emphasize their sculptural qualities, he also used burlap, wood panels, sand, and graphite as bases for his water drops.

In the mid-1970s, Kim Tschang-Yeul began experimenting with painting water drops on newspapers, combining text with imagery. By the mid-1980s, he developed a process that involved repeatedly painting water drops over the Thousand Character Classic, a text he wrote reminiscing about his hometown. This practice evolved into his introspective series titled “Recurrence.”

The “Recurrence” series represents a fusion of Kim’s definitive motif of water drops with the essence of Eastern thought embodied by the Thousand Character Classic, experimenting with this new background in various ways.

This series is characterized by the layering of the text multiple times, boldly increasing the size of the characters, adding color to the background, and juxtaposing the Thousand Character Classic with water drops within a single frame.

The Thousand Character Classic used as the backdrop serves not only as a code for memories of the artist’s childhood but also symbolizes a return to his cultural roots, a journey “back to the starting point.”

The piece “Recurrence SH97003,” created in 1997 and displayed for the first time since the museum’s opening through this exhibition, exemplifies the perfect harmony between the Thousand Character Classic and water drops.

Lee Jong-hoo, director of Jeju Museum of Art, commented, “Kim Tschang-Yeul’s countless water drops encapsulate the fleeting moments of formation and dissolution, bearing both the physical scars of events like the Korean War and the existential anxieties lurking in life, all part of the artist’s long journey toward healing, ultimately seeking peace and tranquility. Through this exhibition, I hope it serves as an opportunity for us to introspect and reflect on our inner selves.”