My encounter with Duk-su Ku was the important link to knowing and seeing the past, present, and future of Chinese art. All arts must reprint from an incident of a human conduct. If the human conduct is ignored and the decision of the nature is relied on, then the culture of human cannot exist. The most ordinary-looking Chinese, Duk-su Ku is a person who knows that human are the basis of art. He knows very well that the essence of paintings is the harmony of the emotions of the inner world and rationality. In order for accordance of emotions and rationalities, he feels that inspecting his life is important.
The first is to control himself to be modest. He knows too well that in order to manage paintings, he must think that managing his character is more precious than an art review. One can never hear him speak ill of another person. In Order to strengthen his ability to think, he must have a mentor and think of it as the greatest thing in his life and understand the principles of knowledge. He respects others first, puts his art world a subject to be criticized, and inspects his vulnerable points that he missed. At this point, he never speaks but records what he thinks.
He enjoys leisure in life in order to plan a new work. He refuses any arrogant conducts such as thinking his life is not happy but only the art world is the object of happiness. He enjoys the most ordinary parts of life. If one takes a close look around his studio, one may feel that he is a composer playing nature's symphony. While raising crickets in several tens of containers, he listens, straightens it out in his mind and controls his emotions through rationality, the order of the inner self that only exists in the world of rhythm and he plans the new painting through his life as a whole.
If one goes to an artist's home, one can see the too many books that are there just for decoration; however, I have never felt that way in Duk-su Ku's home. He always realizes what he lacks and always devotes himself to Chinese and world paintings. At this moment, he opens up a new chapter in the book of paintings that never existed in the past until now. He is one of those people who are very hard-working.
He has another blessing. He feels that a companion who deeply understands his world of works is his wife. He does not think of her as a manager or a criticizer of his art world but a companion who understands and studies the essence of the art world together and possesses jointly the notion that life itself is art. If life is not more beautiful than the essence of art, then there are many times when art is just an expression. The painter, Duk-su Ku concords life and art and admires life.
The beginning of Duk-su Ku's art begins from purity. He started because he likes art. While all art worlds are rejecting purity, his paintings have a mysterious feeling of making us clean. The first picture he started drawing was a rough drawing done in pencil. His rough drawing seemed like a basic work that anyone can do. A thirteen or a fourteen year-old student learns how difficult it is to express while drawing a self-portrait. One thing more difficult than expression is realizing on one's own the life the object possesses. He became an incredible boy who looks at it until he knows the principles, finds picture books of Western-style painters that were not so common and compares them with his paintings. At this time, he begins to learn what the world of Muk (black ink) and colors are and learns the ways to form a painting but everything is still sloppy.
The cultural revolution in China made him realize how lonely afflictions can be to him. After realizing what contrary relationships the solitude has with his will and what the human's will can express, he forms the painting of the object which comes into his head and draws it. With a piece of a brick and a piece of paper, he expresses a concise and simple object he thought of and an object he wanted to express. These works express a sense of beauty like the incubation of himself. Through the scene of pain, he gets to see the division. His body was not free but there were new lives growing in the crevices of the walls He saw the sunlight, which he saw as peace and love, coming in through the crack of the window and grafted the beauty of life behind the pain into the world of beauty.
All painters try to express that humans are the most precious subjects in every paintings. Where is the human who thinks, the human who protects peace and freedom and the human who is the subject of eternal beauty? The mountain and nature, and the place of innocence that the painter himself made, all develops with the confidence that it will accept all of the above.
Oriental colors can be philosophical at many times. Colors tend to have a definite meaning when it expresses life, religion, death, speculation, symbol of authority, and spirit instead of the true meaning of beauty. It is not just looking at a picture through senses but looking and thinking only by the spirit, blocking the world of meaning that was meant to be expressed and making it the echo of the spirit. Duk-su Ku knows this Oriental culture very well.
In the historical scene of ancient China and the conduct of art guiding the world of beauty, the sky, the earth, and human was the absolute thesis. The Chinese landscape painting seems to be the proof of this statement. The methods of forming this painting can be said to be very contrary to the theories of Western paintings. The world of art of Duk-su Ku is not an art to look at but an art to think, in other words like an echo. Plus, it is like watching the universal order of the sky, the earth and human.
Chinese think of tradition as very important. It is because they cherish the cultural heritage that does not exist in any part of the world. As a result, there are many times when a painting drawn by a Chinese can appear to be related to tradition. In other words, it would be best to say that they do not seek change often.
Duk-su Ku knows how to preserve tradition and how to graft it into others. Plus, he knows clearly what tradition means in the present day and expresses them very well. The changes in painting he is seeking is very Chinese and is the core of the advanced present day beauty. His art is the creation of beauty that have never been expressed in the intellect form and is the redefinition of tradition.
One of the beauty of Oriental is the world of Muk (black ink). Muk (black ink) is the principle of nature and the fundamental of Oriental culture. Duk-su Ku uses the technique of not using the Muk (black ink) but showing the essence of beauty that the Muk (black ink) possesses through Han-ji (Korean paper). He decides on the background color, coats a different paper on top of it, and it cracks and bursts. He seems like a person travelling in the mental world to express the history and languages that have been hidden for thousands of years into art according to the will of the painter.
In order to show the directions of modern art, he keeps from logical rationalism and after uniting and combining the traditional concept for the accord of the sky, the earth and human, he vanishes from the painting. That is why his paintings seems as if looking in a clean lake. It was as if we were watching the beginning of the world created by God.
The world of art that has been shown through cracking, possesses the purity of human towards spirit, proves how beautiful the world of speculation is, and the world of colors proves shat the human's, who loves peace, determination is.
Duk-su Ku's changes in paintings do not change through a regular period but changes according to how much his will seeks for peace. At this point, he creates art that is character and symbol. It is a surprising creativity and beauty.
One of the features of Chinese paintings that they start off with Indian ink. However, Duk-su Ku made a new world of Indian ink which is more exquisite than the world Indian ink.
Fist of all, the background of the sky and the earth will be made into an imaginary background by harmonizing colors and ink. Then Han-ji (Korean paper) is placed on top and is left to crack. When the inside can be seen, the vestiges of life is made on the Han-ji (Korean paper). Then it is colored, the right amount of Han-ji (Korean paper) is peeled and the beauty of Indian ink like the home of the Orientals is shown. The surprising thing is he attempted to insert a mysterious light that was never seen in the world of Indian ink. He opened a new generation of beauty and art where the walls between the Oriental and Western are surmounted and the new Indian ink world of the sky, the earth and human is combined together.
One of the beauties of Oriental art is the painting in the literary artist's style. Through the painting in the literary artist's style, the Chinese history, the idea of culture, philosophy, the spirit of the generations, what was learnt from nature, the emotions felt towards human and the image of the heart are thought deeply. The paintings of Duk-su Ku is clearly not a painting in the literary artist's style. be imagined without poetry and calligraphy? Duk-su Ku's paintings are filled with the scent the painting in the literary artist's style even without absolute spirit. He did not draw spirit from form nor find sense of beauty from the subjects. He realized the formative language of life surpasses all generations. It is because the formative languages are guarding the place of the painting in the literary artist's style.
The people who saw Duk-su Ku's paintings started to show their reactions. "It is a painting I have never seen. It is a full-size work. It is contrary to the traditional ones. It is more of an industrial art than a pictorial. It is too modern. There are too much symbols. There are too many repetitive components. It is coherent to Western paintings. Is there an Oriental painting without a seal?"
If one thinks for a moment. he knows the essence of art that surpasses the generation. An educated person always tries to act kind. This is because whoever learns seems to look like a mentor. A person who understands like goodness. It is because through him, others know what they do not know.
The life and art of Duk-su Ku makes one know and learn what the beauty of human is.
August in the year 2000 when summer comes and goes
Jae-hong lee, the curator of Asia Art Gallery