[INTERVIEW] Kim Whanki drawing found not on canvas, but on earthen plate

Hahn Ki-hoh, owner of the ceramic drawing presumed to have been created by the abstract master, Kim Whanki, speaks during an interview at The Korea Times office in Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Park Han-sol

Korea's pioneering abstract master, Kim Whanki (1913-1974), is best known for his artistic focus on East Asian cultural motifs like moon jars, as well as his later transition into paintings, featuring an abstract constellation of dots.

In recent years, Kim's name has made headlines in the art circle once again, as the value of his works has continued to increase. It was in November 2019, when his 1971 diptych, "Universe 5-IV-71 #200," fetched 13.2 billion won (HK$88 million) at Christie's Hong Kong, making history as the most expensive Korean art piece ever auctioned, to this day.

But what many may not know is that during the early 1960s, after his return from Paris to Seoul in 1959, the artist also experimented with different media beyond regular canvases, producing his drawings and oil and gouache paintings on the surfaces of everyday objects.

Among them, an earthen plate featuring a portrait of a woman became the first to reveal itself to the public last year, after its current owner, Hahn Ki-hoh, brought the piece to the Whanki Museum in central Seoul, six decades after its creation.

"I wanted to share and enjoy the celebrated master's work with others," Hahn told The Korea Times, Tuesday. "It was too valuable to be simply tucked away inside my house."

Hahn gained possession of the artwork in 1962 by pure accident.

"Back then, I wasn't an art collector nor an art enthusiast. I was just a reporter for the city desk who didn't know much about that side of the world."

An earthen plate featuring a portrait of a woman currently on display at the exhibition, "Kim HyangAn, Souvenirs de Paris," at the Whanki Museum's annex, called Suhyangsanbang. Next to the woman's face is Kim Whanki's signature, "Whanki." Courtesy of Hahn Ki-hoh, the Whanki Foundation and the Whanki Museum

One day, he visited the house of his college friend, Zoh Myeong-han, where he came across an art piece hanging on a wall. "Nice painting," he told his friend.

That was when Hahn first heard about the artist named Kim Whanki. It turned out that Zoh's sister, the oldest of four siblings, was a close friend of the painter's wife, Kim HyangAn (1916-2004), from their days back at Ewha Womans University. She gave the Zoh family four pieces from her husband's collection as gifts.

"Zoh told me that since the wall painting belongs to his brother, he would give me what he had received. He then brought me something wrapped in a cloth," he said. "It's not like I could open it right there, so I just brought it home. I had no idea how valuable a gift that was."

When Hahn finally uncovered the package, he discovered inside a 30-centimeter-wide earthen plate, the surface of which was covered with coarse brushstrokes making up the portrait of a big-eyed woman. Upon closer examination, next to the woman's face, that was as round as the plate itself, was the word, "Whanki," Kim's iconic signature.

The piece is presumed to have been created in 1961, according to the year written on its back, while the artist was working as the dean of Hongik University's College of Fine Arts in Seoul before he left for New York two years later.

But a realization soon hit Hahn: that he had no proper place at his home to exhibit this nice yet unexpected gift. The plate ended up getting tucked away in a wooden cabinet.

Throughout the next several decades, its location inside the house frequently changed. At one point, for nearly 10 years, in fact, it was even used by his mother, who thought it was the perfect candidate to be the lid of her earthen pot in the front yard, unbeknownst to Hahn. That's when he finally decided to place it properly in a display cupboard.

As time passed, Hahn started seeing Kim's name more frequently, as the artist's pieces continued to gain recognition one after another in the art scene. Whenever that happened, he would call his friend Zoh and asked him to take back the painting, but Zoh always refused.

But in late 2019, upon hearing the news of Kim's record-breaking sale at Christie's Hong Kong, he had to make another call.

"What choice did I have? I had to tell my friend once again that it was too burdensome to hold on to Kim's work any longer." This time, the answer was a much more cold-hearted, "No."

"I realized much later that Zoh was suffering from lung cancer. He must have thought that all this talk about art value and windfall meant nothing to him."

The earthen plate featuring Kim's drawing of a woman, left, bears a striking resemblance to his "Portrait of HyangAn" (1960s) displayed at the Whanki Museum. Courtesy of the Whanki Foundation and the Whanki Museum

Hahn then decided to knock on the doors of the Whanki Museum, a private art museum that was established by Kim HyangAn and the Whanki Foundation in 1992 to commemorate her husband's oeuvre. Here, it was pointed out that the plate bears a striking resemblance to the artist's 1960s "Portrait of HyangAn" in the museum's collection.

"The museum conducted its own research on the iconography drawn on the earthenware. We also invited a ceramic expert to examine its current condition [and method of creation] ― how it was fired in a kiln and glazed later," an official at the museum told The Korea Times.

"According to the expert, the period during which it was fired was definitely not recent ― so not in the last 10 or 20 years ― and the way the plate was later glazed indicates that it was done by a painter, who works in a field of art other than ceramics."

Although the museum does not issue certificates of authenticity, based on these factors of iconography, methods of creation and the presumed year of production, it is highly likely that the plate's drawing was created by Kim himself, it concluded.

"That is why we decided to exhibit this piece in our venue, after Hahn lent it to the museum."

As of now, the rental period of the earthen plate discussed between the two parties remains tentative. Since last year, the item has been on display at two exhibitions at the Whanki Museum's annex, called Suhyangsanbang ― a combination of Kim's pen name, Suhwa, and his wife's name, HyangAn ― along with other memorabilia cherished by the artist couple.

"I'm now 84. I don't know how much time I have on this earth. Before saying a final goodbye, I want to make the right decision about this work," Hahn said, expressing hope to inform the international art world of the value of Kim's piece.

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