“I want to make paintings that, like nature, one never tires of looking at. That is all I want in my art.”
O ne of the leading figures of the Korean Dansaekhwa movement, Yun Hyong-keun represents a calm yet resoundingly influential voice in the Korean post-war avant-garde. A first generation Dansaekhwa artist, Yun’s iconic oeuvre traces out a singular spirit of silence and purity entrenched in Eastern philosophies of nature and spiritual practices. His work powerfully reflects the Korean sent.mes nts that emerged after the Korean War (1950-1953), and the renewed investigation of materiality, tactility and more meditative approach to art making that drew upon Taoist and Buddhist philosophy.
Umber - Blue, executed in 1985 is a mature work by the artist, and represents his signature aesthetic that he had been developing for over forty years. For works such as Umber - Blue, Yun combines a natural palette of umber—the colour of earth—and ultramarine—the colour of water—to create his iconic “rectilinear compositions” (“Yun Hyong-keun”, Simon Lee, online). The work is inspired both by nature and by traditional ink-wash paintings, particularly those of the scholar-calligrapher, Kim Jeong-hui. To create his mesmerising works such as Umber - Blue, Yun Hyong-keun added layer upon layer of paint onto raw canvas and later hemp and linen, often applying new pigments before the last layer had dried. He then diluted the pigment with turpentine solvent, which is absorbed at a faster rate and allows the mixture to seep into the fibres of the support, staining or encroaching into the unpainted areas. As such, his works embody t.mes , and epitomise key aspects of Dansaekhwa including tactility, spirituality and performance.
「我想作品像大自然一樣，讓人看之不倦。我的藝術追求僅此而已。」
尹 亨根是韓國「單色畫」（Dansaekhwa）運動的先鋒人物，更是韓國戰後前衛藝術中一把沉靜純樸的聲音。尹亨根是「單色畫」風潮中的第一代畫家，而他的標誌性作品同源於一種靜謐純粹的精神境界，充滿東方自然哲學和靈修的意味。他的作品強烈地反映著韓戰（1950-1953年）後國民的情緒，以及他對物質、質感和源自道教與佛教哲學並更富冥想意味的創作手法之重新研究。創作於1985年的《赭藍》是一幅成熟作品，展現了他醞釀超過四十年而成的美學風格。在《赭藍》等作品中，藝術家糅合了代表土地的棕紅色與代表水的深藍，營造出他頗具辨識度的「直立式構圖」（引述〈尹亨根〉，西蒙．李畫廊，摘錄自網絡）。本作的靈感來自大自然和傳統水墨畫，特別是文人書法家金正喜的作品。尹亨根將顏料逐層塗抹在畫布上（在較後期的作品則改用麻布或亞麻布），並在最上層乾透前再塗上新色，塑造出看似簡約卻耐人尋味的畫面。然後，他會用松節油溶劑稀釋顏料，由於溶劑更快被吸收，兩者混合後可滲入底下畫布的纖維，沾染原本素白的空間。因此，他的作品體現了時間、質感、靈性與表演性等「單色畫」的關鍵特色。