Unbo Kim Ki Chang (1914-2001) is affirmed by his numerous experimental endeavors aimed at modernizing Korean painting throughout his career, spanning from the modern to the contemporary era, and by his successful introduction of
diverse series of works resulting from these efforts. At the age of eight, Unbo lost his hearing due to a high fever caused by typhoid,
becoming deaf. However, he transformed the pain of silence into an extremely sensitive visual aesthetic.
Unbo began formal art training in 1930 at the age of 17 under Idang Kim Eun Ho (1892–1979),
learning traditional landscape and portrait painting techniques. In the early 1950s, his The Life of Jesus series (1952–1953), comprising 30 pieces from the birth to the resurrection of Jesus, garnered attention for reinterpreting biblical themes
through a Korean lens, transforming the settings, attire, and characters to the Joseon Dynasty.
In the late 1950s, he explored abstraction through Munjado (Pictorial Ideograph), expressing Chinese characters with free,
dynamic brushstrokes, thus attempting abstraction in Korean painting. This period also marked the rise of his Hwajo Yeongmodo
(Paintings of Birds, Flowers, and Animals). From the 1960s, Unbo fully embraced abstraction, and he began his Babo Sansu
(Foolish Landscape Style) series, influenced by the humorous and naive aesthetic of Minhwa (Korean Folk Painting),
vividly capturing the simplicity of ordinary life during the 1970s. In the 1980s, he created the Cheongrok Sansu
(Blue and Green Landscape Style) series, featuring mountainous landscapes dominated by deep blue-green hues.
In the early 1990s, he produced the Dots and Lines series, created by dipping a mop into ink and applying it to large canvases.
The exhibition Unbo Kim Ki Chang, currently on view at ARARIO GALLERY CHEONAN, revisits Unbo’s aesthetic values
and his significance in art history by presenting a wide range of works from his early period in the 1930s
to his later works in the 1990s.
This publication is a collection of a solo exhibition of Unbo Kim Ki Chang, Unbo Kim Ki Chang,
presented at ARARIO GALLERY CHEONAN from 18 February 2025 to 22 March 2026.
