KJCKorea
Journal Central

Kim, Woo jo had taken drawing lesson by Seo, Jin dal while he was attending Keisung School. In 1941 after his water color painting was chosen at the 20th Joseon Art exhibition, his name started to be known as an painter. From 1943 to 1988, he had been at a high school as a teacher. During this period he studied printing technique(skills) for himself and exhibited his outstanding prints. In his latter days, he only focused on printing works. After the Liberation of Korea in 1945 and the Korean War, he had a hard time to get painting materials. Therefore, he had to find alternative ways to overcome the lack of them. His printing works were the result of his long consideration. Through the research on ancient printins, he realized the importance of tradition and the possibility of changing them to modern works. In the late 1950s, he considered printing as his major means of expression, but he didn't confine his creative activity into producing paintings. So he combined oil paintings with printings. However, since the 1960s when he started to have confidence on the unique way of expression in printings, he had built a highly individual style of printings. He understood the major difference between paintings and prints as follows: the one as drawing with brushes and the other as ‘printing process’. His characteristic approach to print was to use raw material like plywood. This affected both his prints and paintings. The material symbolized difficult times, and the content of his works reflected ‘the sentiment of the people’. His paper prints and large-scaled color wood prints which expressed epic subjects led the realistic wood print movement during the 1980s. In his late lithographic works, <Dance> series which represented his liberal spirit on experiment, he pursued various techniques and was free from formality in expressing his ideas. At first, though he chose print as an alternative to painting, he achieved a remarkable success in transforming common paintings into fresh expression through applying printing technique. This also helped him realize his artistic concept. Even though his achievement in expanding the world of print into expressing the spirit of the time, and to liberal and experimental expression should have been highly evaluated, his works still do not receive the spotlight and attract critics' attention. I expect that his artistry and noble thinking to the people are able to be discussed and judged freshly.

Daegu Artists group, Hwang-To group, korean modern art, Woo-Jo Kim, wood cut, wood print movement