KOREASCHOLAR

Yoo Youngkuk started his career as an artist when he entered Bunkagakuin of Tokyo in 1935 he actively participated in the Japanese art scene as a young Korean artist until 1943. In his earliest works, Rhapsody and Work B, Surrealist and abstract influences are manifested as these were prevalent in Japan at the time. With the exception of Rhapsody and Work B, all works available that were executed between 1937 and 1940 are abstract, which points to the fact that Yoo intended abstraction from the beginning. Surviving works in relief suggest his early style was founded on the abstractions similar to Russian Avant-Garde, Neo-plasticism and Bauhaus simplicity. His early abstractions were not the ideational images derived in the process of the abstraction of the representational image, but they arose from the constructive attitude in composing the already stylized non-representational geometries. It is worth noting that his early emphasis was on the pure and absolute geometric abstraction, rather than the images motivated from the figurative representation. Yoo differentiates himself from Kim Whan Ki in the following aspects: one, he eliminated the subject matter i.e. human figures and the nature; two, he maintained the constructivist attitude in creating a strict and absolute abstraction; three, he experimented with different styles without combining them. He manifests direct influences from the prevalent Western art influences, such as Futurism and Russian Avant-Garde, unlike Kim who vaguely references. In both paintings and reliefs, Yoo’s attempt in the realization of the pictorial depth and space seems cerebral and conceptualized compared with the other artists of the time who resolved abstraction via the constructive dimension. Uemura, a contemporary critic to the geometric abstractions in Japan, disapproves the stylistic bent in the adaptation of the abstract painting without the comprehension of its spiritual movement. As witnessed in other criticisms as well, contemporary Japanese critics’ interest lie mainly in the superficial observation such as the presence of representational elements, composition and use of color. Such formal and superficial understanding of the geometric abstraction resulted in the general appreciation of the style as the color-compositional design. Yoo’s works have been related to such design-like aspect of the abstract paintings, yet, some of his works attest to the visual shift from the constructivist to the painterly dimension. As witnessed in his photographic works taken in Gyeongju in 1942, Yoo’s interest lies in the geometric shapes of the photographic objects rather than the landscape or the documentary aspect of the view. Seen in the series of photographs, he began extracting the ideational images from the observation of the subject matter. The ideational images ultimately configure the geometric shapes, yet they differ from the previous abstraction in that they originate from the representation rather than the conceptual realm. I do not see such shift in style as a form of regression. Such change is only natural considering the artist’s move from Japan where the westernized civilization had created a geometric environment to Korea where the mountainous curves and nature still abounded.

• 정영목(서울대학교 교수) | Young-Mok Chung