Kim Yusob

Within his oeuvre Kim Yusob aims at providing new impulses for abstract expressionism. His process of painting unites religious, philosophical and Anthroposophical aspects. Much is left to hazard, for Kim considers his art a seismogram of his inner world. The (in an alchemical analogy) "first matter" of his painting is an amorphous and indefinite liquid mass. Thus the basic material already contains the final work of art. The artist merely brings it to light during the process of painting. Kim’s conceit of a pre-defined matter closely resembles the Aristotelian concept of a teleological hyle, and has also been shared by artists such as Michelangelo or Edwin Landseer. Due to Kim’s background it is also rooted in Daoism and the I Ching. Furthermore, Kim obtains a typical effect by applying special technique of decelerating the colours’ drying: Such their characteristic material quality prevails.

After graduating from the Department of Fine Art at Chosun University, Gwangju, in 1983 Kim Yusob moved to Berlin. There he studied both at the Kunsthochschule Weissensee in East Berlin and at the Western Universität der Künste (University of the Arts). 1995 he became Meisterschüler (Master Disciple) of Wolfgang Petrick. Since 1996 Kim has been teaching at Chosun University, where he completed Graduate School in 2001. From 2007 on he has been teaching at the Universität der Künste (University of the Arts). In 2014 he became Professor of Painting at Chosun University.

Kim Yusob (born 1959 in Gwangju) is a South Korean artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany and Seoul, South Korea.