〈Mt. Geumgang — Vitality〉

Shin Jang-sik, having engaged folk subjects such as the cheongsachorong (fig. 1), the janggu drum, and flags, went on to explore varied subjects and methods of expression — including the lotus motif (yeonhwamun), the flame motif (hwayeommun) of the Buddha's halo, and the patterns of traditional windows — carving them into woodblocks (1989–1991). These were revealed under the theme of "Arirang," and "Arirang" was, for him, a symbol of our tradition. While he had been pursuing the aesthetic consciousness of tradition in its decorative character through such motifs, his artistic world underwent a great turn in 1992. Under the theme 〈Arirang — Vitality〉, historical landmarks such as Gwanghwamun and Buddhist statues (fig. 2), together with lotuses and wild grasses, came to be expressed directly, surpassing the limits of decoration and approaching the very vitality of the subjects themselves. From this beginning, the pursuit of "vitality" diversified, and by 1995 he had taken Mt. Geumgang as his subject. Through a sustained interest in Korean art history and a persistent effort to root his aesthetic in tradition, he arrived at sansu (mountain-water painting) — the very essence of East Asian painting.

Although Shin Jang-sik's mountain paintings take sansu as their subject, they are not landscape paintings. This is, in painting Mt. Geumgang, because he sought to reveal his own plastic consciousness rather than the beauty of the great mountain itself. Without having sketched Mt. Geumgang from life, he nonetheless drew upon his experience of mountains such as Wolchulsan and Bukhansan, alongside photographs and videos of Mt. Geumgang, and pursued his own Mt. Geumgang through the Mt. Geumgang paintings of masters from late-Joseon Gyeomjae Jeong Seon to the modern-era Haegang Kim Gyu-jin. This stands distinct from the view of past sansu painters who believed they could fully paint the landscape only when, having observed and experienced nature by walking ten thousand li, the mountain and the self became one (mul-a-il-che). For him, "Mt. Geumgang" is no different from a synonym for sansu or nature itself; the particular topography or beauty of Mt. Geumgang is not what is essential. Moreover, since Mt. Geumgang had long been an unreachable, mystical site, it became a mountain founded on idea rather than observation or sketch, and for that very reason the artist could express it more freely, less bound by actuality.

Shin Jang-sik also accepted as "vitality" gi-un-saeng-dong (rhythmic vitality, the highest aesthetic value in East Asian art) and sought to bring it forth through sansu. His signature dripping technique seeks to reveal vitality through the qi rising from an unconscious gesture, without plastic intent in the dripping. As with the repetitively entwined lines seen in his earlier woodblock prints, his dripping carries animation through the repetition of swift motion, and also serves to unify the entire work. He builds the mountain form atop the dak (mulberry) paper applied to canvas, then disperses it through dripping, then again constructs solid form … repeating this process to build the picture plane, so that the mountain's form departs from the realistic and gradually becomes a "mountain of the heart-spirit (sim-ryeong)."

In color, too, where earlier motif-based expressions held strong primary contrasts, he has gradually pared away unnecessary tones to approach essence. Just as ink reveals the five colors with a single ink-color and so carries the spirituality of sansu painting, he simplifies the countless valleys of Manmulcho into darkness and light, seeking to symbolize the qi of yin and yang.

To today's city dwellers, nature is sometimes a place of rest, of mental release from the complications of daily life. This is a cultivation of body and mind through projecting oneself into nature — yet not a desire to live in seclusion (eun-il) within it forever, apart from civilization. In this sense, today's recognition of nature shares with the past the aspect of longing for and enjoying nature, but differs in that sansu and nature are no longer easily identified with life itself. Such a contemporary view of sansu may be glimpsed in Shin Jang-sik's Mt. Geumgang. To express vitality he drips and emphasizes the rock crevices, but at the same time, in order not to be wholly absorbed into nature as object, he partitions the surface with long lines forming a grid. He also attaches as objet figures of Avalokiteśvara (Gwaneum bosal) and Sudhanakumāra (Seonjae dongja) printed in silkscreen, contrasting them with the mountain as a living being. Thus, while breathing in nature's vitality, he does not place absolute weight on sansu itself as object — and this is consonant with the contemporary recognition of sansu. In the handling of space, where traditional sansu suggested infinite space through blank fields, clouds, and mist — allowing one to feel the breath of nature and to chang-sin (expand the spirit) within it — Shin lays out the vast valleys of sansu repetitively across large surfaces that occupy an entire wall of the exhibition space, flattening the grand space and embodying it through varied visual means including the use of objet.

Through this exhibition, Shin Jang-sik reveals the fusion of "decorativeness" and "vitality" — somewhat opposing elements — that has stood at the center of his work over the past decade or so. The effort to pare back decorative tendencies and concentrate on content, which last year's exhibition 〈Meditation (瞑想)〉 displayed in seeking harmony between them, is also visible in this exhibition's Mt. Geumgang, pines, and wild grasses. In the end, his Mt. Geumgang pursues the union of traditional vitality and contemporary form — a difficult passage that artists today carry as their double burden: the inheritance of tradition and the attainment of modernity.

With recent tourism development, Mt. Geumgang is no longer the unreachable, numinous mountain. From here, will he pursue a deeper vitality grounded in the experience of actually touring and enjoying Mt. Geumgang, or will he seek another object through which to recreate traditional subjects in his own formal vocabulary? We await and watch with interest.