Lumière née de la lumière

Bang, Hai Ja 방혜자, 方惠子, né en 1937 à Séoul

En 2007
Papier, Couleurs - Pigments
Peinture
Don manuel : Bang, Hai Ja 방혜자, 方惠子

M.C. 2014-6

Bang Hai Ja joined the group of artists known as the École de Paris shortly after her arrival in France in 1961. The work she has been developing ever since is based on a deep-rooted spirituality materialised in the light emanating from her works.

Born in 1937, Bang Hai Ja is a few years younger than the generation of the great pioneers of Korean contemporary art. By the time she began her studies at the Seoul National University in 1956, the Korean art scene had already shifted towards a new international style, as her early works, oils on canvas, reflect. Nevertheless, she went to Paris in 1961, and completed her training at the École des Beaux-Arts.
She has since spent her career between France, where she has been considered a major representative of the École de Paris, and Korea, where she is a renowned artist on the national scene. From her early oil paintings to her most recent productions on geotextile, her work is entirely focused on the question of the transcription of light, which she sees as the founding principle of the universe. Her early oil paintings were composed of coloured planes arranged in such as manner as to heighten the luminosity of the colours at the centre of the canvas. The subdued colours gradually become lighter and the whole work irradiates with light, while the presence of collages give structure to the composition. Cosmological motifs also appear in the canvases of Bang Hai Ja, and have returned regularly throughout her career.
In the 1980s she abandoned oil in favour of ink, acrylic paint and natural pigments applied directly to the paper, and developed the creative processes she uses to this day. She has worked with Korean paper, using both sides so as to create layers of pigment and thus a sense of depth, which draws the viewer into the work.
 

Reference(s) : Mael Bellec, "Activités du musée Cernuschi", Arts asiatiques, 2015, vol. 70, p. 104.
Author of the record : Mael Bellec