(b Kijwa Island, South Cholla Province, 1913; d New York, 1974). Korean painter. He was a pioneer of abstract art in Korea. The son of an affluent shipowner, he completed his middle-school education in Japan and entered the art department of a university there. In his second year at university he organized an avant-garde art research group and was actively involved in the early movement for abstract art in Japan. In 1936, the year of his graduation, his first private exhibition was held in the Kiikokuoku Gallery in Tokyo. His work from this time is characterized by the attempt to amalgamate Cubism, Futurism and abstract art. On his return to Korea in 1937 he exhibited paintings as a member of the very first Japanese organization for abstract art, the Freedom group. After Korean independence from Japan in 1945 he organized a representationalist school and actively promoted modern art. In 1956 he travelled to Paris, where he stayed for three years, studying European art. After returning to Korea he worked as the Dean of Hong’ik University, Seoul, and as the Chief Director of the Korean Art Association. In this period he worked with such traditional Korean motifs as symbols of longevity, including the moon, mountains, clouds and cranes, and such traditional materials as porcelain, simplifying their form and emphasizing the Koreanness of their style and essence. In 1963 Kim left Korea to become a commissioner of the São Paulo Biennale in Brazil and went on to settle in New York, where he lived until his death. In the 1970s he devised a painting style in which he used repeated, regular dots of colour. Among his most famous works is Rondo (oil on canvas, 610*720 mm, 1938; Seoul, N. MOMA; see Young-na Kim, p. 169). In 1992 the Whanki Museum, which was established as a tribute to his work, was opened in Seoul.

• Kim Hwan-gi
  • Korea, §IV, 3: Painting: Modern developments