Récurrence 2005

Kim Tschang-yeul created this intriguing painting, ‘Récurrence,’ using oils, and it's easy to get lost in its shimmering surface. Imagine the artist, patiently layering translucent spheres over an almost ghostly grid of calligraphic shapes. The surface is so smooth! I wonder if he used a tiny brush or maybe even projected the image to achieve such precision. The way the light catches each droplet is really remarkable, isn't it? They seem to float, suspended in this amber field. It’s almost hypnotic. Looking at the canvas, I feel he’s inviting us to consider the interplay between control and chance, repetition and variation. The ground plane is an abstract field, like a memory, on which the beads of water condense. The title suggests a cycle of repeated returns. I'm reminded a little of On Kawara, with his serial paintings. This feels like a meditation, and it's nice to get lost in it.