KIM Whanki’s “Four-Directional Composition
[Serenity VII-65]

Kim Whanki’s “Four-Directional Composition” works, which emerged around 1967 during his diverse formative experiments in search of change, clearly demonstrate his diverse variations in composition of the picture-plane. “four-directional composition” was a composition scheme in which the four corners of the picture-plane were divided by lines or planes so that a cross shape would form naturally in the central section. Lines were crossed and expanded to make planes, while planes were divided and recomposed to give a sense of expansion, taking our view beyond the boundaries of the picture-plane.
In Serenity VII-65, the artist applied one of his all-time favorite colors, blue, on the canvas in slightly different chroma and brightness of oil paints, and created a tranquil, peaceful atmosphere in the surrounding areas by using only touches of the brush, without clear borders and with a keen sense of color. The color dots arranged in two horizontal lines across the canvas appear as crucial elements for composition, while the clear red dots and a single short line on the overall blue background add liveliness to the work.