By Chung Hye-jean
Staff Reporter

SEOUL Kim Ki-chang, who died of a chronic illness Jan. 23 morning at "The House of Unbo" in Chongwon, Chungchong-pukto, was a representative figure in the annals of Korean art. The 87-year-old artist was also known as "Unbo."

Born in 1914 in Seoul, Kim lost his hearing as a result of typhoid fever at the tender age of seven. However, he overcame his physical disability, making the most of his overflowing passion and artistic talents to become one of the primary pillars of the Korean art world.

In 1930, at the age of 17, Kim began to study art in earnest. He made his debut in art circles the following year by being accepted for the Choson Art Exhibition, a national art exhibition during the Japanese colonial period.

In 1946, he married fellow artist Park Rae-hyun. The next year, they held a joint exhibition, the first of many. His wife was his lifelong companion till her death in 1976.

Vowing that he would paint as long as he had strength enough to move a brush, the prolific artist produced about 20,000 paintings and drawings until he collapsed from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1996.

Possessed with an extensive talent, he developed his own unique abstract expressionism which incorporated the styles of both traditional Korean painting and Western-style abstract painting, pioneering such individual artistic styles as "Idiot? Landscapes."

He never stopped searching for new techniques and styles and constantly endeavored to express the essence of Korean sentiments in various ways and forms, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to classify his work in one category.

When he started painting in the 1930s, he leaned more toward the techniques of traditional Korean paintings and realism, drawing human figures usually clad in "hanbok," the Korean traditional costume, with emphasis on their expressions.

However, in the 40s, he started to fuse the modern Western style with the traditional Korean style, gradually focusing more on abstract symbolism and expressionism rather than realism.

His paintings of the 50s include large-scale landscape paintings that depict huge mountains and dynamic paintings of animals that seem to live and breathe, such as fighting bulls, grazing cows, galloping horses and soaring birds.

But his best-known style was born in the late 70s a unique style which the artist himself dubbed, "Pabo Sansu (Idiot? landscapes)."

Reminiscent of the folk paintings of the Choson Kingdom, his paintings of that period depict traditional Korean landscapes and people in their everyday life. Not only do his paintings echo the subject matter of Choson folk paintings, they have inherited the humor and wit of their predecessors.

The series was started in 1976, the year when his spouse died. The artist himself confessed in interviews that he had no more appetite for life when his wife passed away. But his tenacity for his art was not to be quenched that easily.

His strong emotions were sublimated in the "Pabo Sansu" series through brush strokes that are delicate and intricate, yet also bold and powerful.

He was also well known for his gargantuan, powerful strokes which he made by drawing with a mop in his later years.

Separated from his siblings during the Korean War, he met his 72-year-old brother Kim Ki-man, who is also a prominent artist in North Korea, after half a century at the South-North family reunions held last November.

He is survived by three daughters and one son. His younger brother Ki-man and younger sister Ki-ok still live in North Korea. His funeral was held at Myong-dong Catholic Cathedral in Seoul on
Jan. 27.

"Though his body is gone, his artistic mark on Korean painting will remain indelible," said Chang Woo-soung, one of Kim? fellow artists.