Lot 1599: CHOI YEONG GEOL

CHOI YEONG GEOL
(B. 1969)
Listen to Spring
signed in Korean (lower right)
watercolour on Korean paper
118.5 x 197.5 cm. (46 5/8 x 77 3/4 in.)
Painted in 2009

Whether silently exuding a cold stillness or a warm tranquility, Choi Yeong Geol's landscape oozes a dignified purpose to humbly capture the mesmerizing beauty of God's nature. Comprehending that the power and the essence of nature cannot be depicted in aesthetic equivalence to the mere divinity of the nature's truth and existence itself, Choi still aspires to discipline his religious faith through his diligent efforts of conscientious brushstrokes to depict a landscape that share the same benign, comfortable aura of Mother Nature.

Rejoicing in the transition of the seasons, Choi captures the aesthetic pinnacle of each spring and winter in Listen to Spring (Lot 1599) and Winter Hiking (Lot 1600). Though the whistling yellow leaves appear delicate and brittle against the spring wind in Listen to Spring, the sweet scent of warmth still lingers in the cozy hues of a sunset, where the fragile and sensitive beauty of spring can be felt. However, Winter Hiking poses a different technique with Choi's elegant use of empty space to further highlight the colorless yet tangible existence of snow in pure white. Admirably effective in honing our sensory nerves, both paintings encapsulate the tacit aura of these two seasons, grasping their atmospheric beauty of sweet air of spring and the wet coolness of winter. Choi's sentimentality is applied with dense, impressionistic brushstrokes; a technical trait that watercolor can execute, but only when tended with dexterity.

The focus, poise and faith needed in utilizing an inflexible medium such as watercolour reveals its apt compatibility with Choi's belief that serves as a concrete base in generating immaculate sceneries; his every stroke is applied without regret and with faith, as each creative decision resides permanently on his canvas. Nature for the artist is not merely a still life but, through self purification and religious reverence, a means of disciplining religious faith. Since nature is a mirror of the self and a world of meditation which gives life, restoring all things to their proper and original state, Choi believes that to revive the nature's landscape is an act of religious summon and blessing.