Introduction to the Modern Paintings by the Korean painter, Jin Run                           Song Huimin 
“History Will Not Disappear with the Wind,
   Nor Will Future Come Out without Reason”     The life of art coming through the historical tunnel is accompanied by its essence and its characteristics, and at the same time, can not get away from its nature of classics and creativity, either. The modern paintings by the Korean painter Jin Run are alive with the splendor of oriental verve. Through her own practice in artistic creation, and through her constant experimenting and innovation, she has learned to face this eternal topic of nationality and modernity gradually and more and more deeply. That is also just a problem we traditional Chinese painters have been puzzling out about. It is of great enlightening significance to us.
    Jin Run is a professor in Korean Academy of Fine Arts and responsible researcher in the Institute of Plastic Arts. After getting the M.F.A. degree in Korea, she went to France to make a further study. Hereafter, she spends quite some time in France and Europe each year. Hence, she has chances to probe deeply into the culture and art of the Western world. At the same time, she has also experienced a long practice of artistic creation. She was puzzled for a long time. After bitter mental struggle and arduous seeking, she has finally found back herself, a true and real ego. When her national consciousness and her spirit of oriental traditional art awoke slowly, she got a new uncontrollable enthusiasm for creation in her mind. Change to a new point of view, that is, base herself upon the native land, and take the oriental philosophy of art, philosophy of life and concept of value as her starting points. While melting into the artistic essence of the Occidental, she began a new experience of creation that is full of a revolutionary nature. For a long time, she has been laying stress particularly on the study on the Oriental art. She is especially fond of Chinese painting and calligraphy. She cries up the calligraphic works of Wang Xizhi, and worships the wash painting of Shi Tao and the Ba Da Shan Ren (eight great painters in the mountain).She believes in the philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi, and the philosophical ideas of the Confucians. In the depths of her soul, there is a strong complex of the Oriental and the Korean. On the foundation of such a thinking and emotion, she has revolutionized all the major aspects of painting, such as the materials used in painting, the modes, the methods and the language of painting. Her pictures show a brand-new look. In materials, she uses the thick Korean paper completely; the Korea paper stuck with all kinds of veins, some being translucent, some being semitransparent, some being Korean paper with a great covering capacity. She has also made some plant fiber materials for writing specially. She uses all-purpose painting materials. In the course of drawing, she has made many new inventions and created many new techniques. All the symbols of the painting language have been deeply marked with Jin Run's character. She has produced a new visual effect, built up an imaginary world full of the flavor of the Oriental and the Korean. Jin Run's modern paintings are works exploring into people's mental world, representing the art of imago and soul. It is a modern painting art that has melted into the artistic conception of the Oriental. The oriental thinking in her context of national culture has melted into her blood vessel, which has been combined with the Western pictorial skills she learned later, making the art inspirations of the East and the West concentrate into one in her, thus, she has become a true successor of the oriental art in artistic spirit. There is no certainty in her works. It is a space without limit, offering infinite room for imagination, and giving free display of the subjective will. It is a space for displaying modernity. It can trigger rich association. You can sense the meaning only by your soul. Even the human figures in her works are not meant to show the concrete image of human body, but exist more in the sense of the abstract concept of the capitalized "Human". It is high praise of the "Beauty" of the human itself, from the depths of the heart, and a great care for humanism. The human figures develop from the real to the unreal or from the unreal to the real, letting the real in the unreal and the unreal in the real, without any certainty. It has shown Laozi's great and virile philosophy as described by the words "a shapeless shape and an imageless image". A great sky has no bound, and a great image has no shape". What is shown is a nameless verve of nihility. It is a character of the oriental culture. It is the inexhaustible pursuit after the realm of "similarity in spirit". A pursuit for the realm of nihility described as "Silence here means much more than sound". She has combined the East and the West so properly in her works. She has not only achieved the new artistic conception and the spirituality full of the paper, but also attained a very high artistic and academic level. All those accomplishments are hard-won. The sense of excellent works and the sense of classics are her intrinsic driving forces. Her brushwork is graceful and vigorous, full of the burst of the enthusiasm and emotion of the painter. The flowing of the colors is rich and free from inhibition, full of sense of motion and sense of rhythm. Her expression of emotion is characterized by fine craftsmanship, precision and clarity. There is both fiery blood of youth and sophisticated massiveness and steadiness in it. At the same time, there is also the sensitive and romantic temperament characteristic of a painter. An artistic success is often the result of genus plus diligence. Needless to say, Jin Run is a gifted painter. To be more exact, Jin Run is a very diligent and hard-struggling artist. She always demands too much for her own life and her state of working. She is very busy with exhibition activities. Jin Run is just in a peak time of artistic creation. She has a very good mentality and state for creation. In her artistic creation, she is full of self-confidence, independent spirit and the willpower for unceasing exploration. She has the age advantage, too. From now on, she still has a long way to go. In her pursuit in the artistic creation, her soul is purified and sublimated. The far-reaching, recondite and romantic conception of the oriental art spirit, and the techniques full of aesthetic value... the great and profound oriental culture has melted into her blood and released in her works. She uses the spirit of the modern people to feel modern life. Standing on the high bank of modern life and uplifting the great banner of national cultural spirit, such is the verve of the 21st century, and the soul of art of the 21st century. She is the purest artist. She is also an artist most loyal to art, who goes into the pure state of artistic creation for her artistic ideal. A pure artist will produce pure art.
Song Huimin:
Honored Dean of Luxun Academy of fine Arts, Professor
Vice-President of China Oil Painting Society

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