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  • I write and draw to empty my mind and to fill my heart ..
좋아하는 화가(My favorite Artists)

( 좋아하는 화가 ) Taking Watercolor to New Heights-watercolorist Paul Ching-Bor

by ts_cho 2023. 12. 19.

 

Chizoru Morii Kaplan, Berliner Dom II, 52” x 38”

 

Inside Art 메일에  Christopher Volpe 라는 평론가가 쓴 재미있는 글이 있어 여기 옮긴다.

수채화의 전통적인 기법과 그 미디움으로서의 한계를 넘어서 새로운 차원으로 수채화를 끌어 올리고 있는 중국계

미국 화가 Paul Ching-Bor에 대해서 쓴 글.

단색조로  동양적인 수묵화 분위기에 또 추상적인 분위기가 섞인 그림들이 눈길을 끈다.

( 번역은 구글 번역을 그대로 옮긴다 )

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2007년경 뉴욕시에서 몇몇 초기 및 중기 예술가들이 중국계 미국인 수채화가 Paul Ching-Bor의 스튜디오 주변에 

모였습니다. 칭보르(Ching-Bor)는 도시 풍경을 역동적인 대형 수채화로 그린 것으로 유명합니다. 

각자의 길을 떠난 이후로 이 예술가들은 수채화 장르를 새로운 영역으로 끌어들이는 인상적인 대형 작품을 통해 

Ching-Bor의 혁신을 전파하고 확장했습니다.

Paul Ching-Bor, UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS / THE FAREWELL IN CARRAMAR I, watercolor on paper 32.5” x 51.5”.


그림은 추상적이지는 않지만 그렇게 기울어져 있습니다. 표현력이 풍부한 드립과 레이어드 워싱을 사용하여 

그림 계획 전반에 걸쳐 긴밀하게 렌더링된 사실적인 디테일이 전투를 벌입니다. 

수집가들은 그룹의 분위기 있는 도시적 도상학뿐만 아니라 현대 정신을 탐구하는 세계관을 불러일으키는 방식에도 

매력을 느끼는 것 같습니다.

Chizoru Morii Kaplan, The Louvre VI, 46” x 52”


Chizoru Morii Kaplan은 2007년경 Ching-Bor의 스튜디오에 함께 모인 예술가 중 한 명입니다. 

프리랜서 건축 렌더러로 일했던 그녀의 이전 작업은 그녀에게 스카이라인을 꿰뚫는 매우 예리한 눈과 손길과 

다른 사람들이 간과할 수 있는 친밀한 건축 세부 사항에 대한 이점을 제공했습니다.
그녀의 작품은 건축학적 특수성과 전문성을 추상적인 붓놀림 및 대기의 흐름과 결합하여 시청자에게 자신이

그리는 도시에 거주하는 느낌을 "더 진실되게 묘사"할 수 있다고 말합니다.

Paris American Academy 연구 연맹의 회원인 그녀의 그림은 뉴욕 시 National Arts Club 갤러리, 

Salmagundi 클럽, Bertrand Delacroix 갤러리 및 미주리주 스프링필드에 있는 Springfield 미술관에 전시되었습니다.

Chizoru Morii Kaplan, Lonesome Journey III, 45” x 65”


아트린 켈러 라킨스(athryn Keller Larkins)는 현대적인 느낌을 가미한 대규모 수채화 작업을 하는 또 다른 예술가입니다. 

그녀는 또한 뉴욕시에 거주하며 자신의 작품을 전시하고 있습니다.

Kathryn Keller Larkins, Through Security, watercolor on paper, 51” x 81.5”


뉴욕 갤러리에서 날카로운 대형 현대 수채화를 보는 것은 다소 드뭅니다. 장르는, 말하자면 문화의 충돌 속에서 

유기적으로 진화해 온 것 같습니다. Ching-Bor는 중국과 일본의 수묵화가를 연상시키는 수직의 동일한 크기의 

종이 조각을 표준화하여 대규모 작업을 시작했으며 더 크고 넓은 조각을 위해 이들을 합쳤습니다.
Ching-Bor는 광저우 미술 대학(중국)과 Jing De Zhen Ceramic Institute(중국)에서 전통 미술을 전공했습니다.

그 후 10년 동안 그는 호주 시드니에서 전문 예술가로 살면서 일했습니다. 1996년에 그는 뉴욕으로 이주하여

국립 디자인 아카데미(National Academy of Design)에서 회화와 판화를 공부하고 자신의 목소리를 찾기 시작했습니다.

Paul Ching-Bor, The Onland Lighthouse VI, watercolor on paper, 126” x 51”


어느 시점에서 Ching-Bor는 뉴욕 학교 추상 표현주의자들, 특히 프란츠 클라인(Franz Kline)의 마법에 빠졌습니다. 

그의 몸짓 흑백 추상화는 다리와 기타 도시 기반 시설은 물론 거대한 한자와 동시에 닮을 수 있습니다.

Kline, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning 및 그 시대의 다른 예술가들의 작품에서 Ching-Bor는 고대 중국

두루마리 화가의 이론과 더 깊은 유사점을 발견했으며, 이것이 그 자신의 동양과 서양 접근 방식의 개인적인 혼합에

영감을 주었습니다. 도시와 Ab-Ex의 역사에 대응하여 그의 작품은 전통적인 수채화 원칙에 맞서 대규모로

진행되었습니다.

Ching-Bor는 “맨해튼의 거리를 처음 걸었을 때 이 험난한 도시와 떠들썩한 군중이 내 작업에 어떤 영향을 미칠지 

궁금했습니다.”라고 말합니다. “구조물, 아치, 다리는 즉시 나에게 영감을 주었고 특히 제한된 색상 팔레트에 

적합했습니다. 제가 가장 좋아하는 색은 흑백인데, 초기 단계에서는 추상화를 연상시키는 매우 자유로운 방식으로 

뉴욕의 주제를 다룰 수 있다는 것을 알았습니다.”

Paul Ching-Bor, INSOMNIOUS LIGHTS—THE WOOLWORTH BUILDING V, 2016, watercolor on Arches paper, 120 x 103 inches (in two panels)


그의 과정에는 작품의 구조인 그림의 기본 부분을 내려놓는 과정이 포함된다. 그런 다음 이미지가 사라질 때까지 

종이에 유약을 바르고 페인트를 뿌립니다. 작품이 마르면 “이미지가 다시 튀어오른다”고 그는 말합니다. 

“그럼 다시 볼게요. 비물질화의 잔재는 작품의 새로운 구체화가 된다.”

수채화의 접근 방식, 기법, 역할이 이 분야를 뒤흔들어 놓았고, 시간이 지나면서 매체가 계속해서 발전할 것이라는 

데는 의심의 여지가 없습니다.

 

Paul Ching-Bor, Abyss, watercolor on Arches paper 145 x 51 inches 2017

 

PARALLEL PASSAGES — 1+9 NORTH Vwatercolor on Arches paper 95 x 155 inches in three panels 2009
PARALLEL PASSAGE — IN AND OUT OF THE TUNNEL Iwatercolor on Arches paper 72 x 206 inches in four panels 2017
INSOMNIOUS LIGHTS — THE WOOLWORTH BUILDING IIIwatercolor on Arches paper 75 x 51 inches 2016
SANTORINI THROUGH THE CURTAINDrawing on paper 22,5 x 30 inches 2000
SUMMER WIND ON SANTORINIDrawing on paper 30 x 22,5 inches 2016

 

Sometime in New York City around 2007 several early and mid-career artists gathered around the studio of Chinese American watercolorist Paul Ching-Bor. Ching-Bor is known for dynamic, large-format watercolors of urban scenery. Since going their separate ways, these artists have evangelized and extended Ching-Bor’s innovations in impressive large-format works that push the watercolor genre into new territory.

The paintings are not abstract, although they lean that way. Tightly rendered realistic details battle across the picture plan with expressive drips and layered washes. Collectors seem drawn not only to the group’s moody urban iconographies but to the way they evoke worldviews that probe the modern psyche.

Chizoru Morii Kaplan is one of the artists who came together at Ching-Bor’s studio around 2007. Her previous work as a freelance architectural renderer afforded her the advantage of a very sharp eye and hand for sweeping skylines and intimate architectural details likely to be overlooked by untrained eyes. 

Combining architectural specificity and expertise with abstract brushstrokes and atmospheric drift, her work can offer her viewers, she says, “a more truthful depiction” of how it feels to inhabit the cities she paints.  

A fellow of the League for study at the Paris American Academy, her paintings have been exhibited in New York City at The National Arts Club Gallery, the Salmagundi Club, the Bertrand Delacroix Gallery, and the Springfield Art Museum in Springfield, MO.

athryn Keller Larkins is another artist working with, among other media, large-scale watercolors with a contemporary feel. She also lives and shows her work in New York City.

It’s somewhat rare to see edgy, large-format contemporary watercolors in New York Galleries. The genre, if one could call it that, seems to have evolved organically out of a collision cultures. Ching-Bor began working large by standardizing on vertical, same-sized strips of paper reminiscent of the Chinese and Japanese ink painters, only putting them together for larger and wider pieces. 

Ching-Bor studied traditional fine art at Guangzhou Fine Art University (China) and Jing De Zhen Ceramic Institute (China). During the ensuing decade, he lived and worked as professional artist in Sydney, Australia. In 1996, he moved to New York, where he studied painting and printmaking at the National Academy of Design and began to find his own voice. 

At some point, Ching-Bor fell under the spell of the New York School Abstract Expressionists, especially Franz Kline, whose gestural black-and-white abstractions can simultaneously resemble bridges and other city infrastructure as well as giant Chinese characters. In the works of Kline, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning, and other artists of the era, Ching-Bor discovered deeper parallels with the theories of ancient Chinese scroll painters, a coalescence that has inspired his own personal blend of Eastern and Western approaches. In response to the city and its Ab-Ex history, his work went large scale, flying in the face of conventional watercolor principles. 

“When I first walked down the streets of Manhattan I was curious about the impact this strident city and the jostling crowds would have on my work,” Ching-Bor says.  “The structures, arches, and bridges immediately inspired me, and particularly suited my limited color palette.  My favorite colors are black and white, and I found I was able to tackle New York subjects in a very free way that, in the early stages, suggests abstract painting.”

His process involves laying down the fundamental part of the painting, which is the structure of the work. He then proceeds to glaze and splash paint on the paper until the image disappears. When the work dries, “the image bounces back,” he says. “Then I look at it again. The remains from the dematerialization become the new materialization of the work.”

The approach, the technique, and the role of watercolor they empower have disrupted the field no doubt will continue to advance the medium as time goes on.