Kim Yong-Chul's Messages of Love and Hope

Kim Yong-Chul's Messages of Love and Hope

In the 1970s, artist Kim Yong-Chul (b. 1949) worked on TV, newspaper, and media projects, critiquing the political climate while reflecting the society’s needs for national transformation. However, from 1984 onwards, he returned to painting vivid, animated, fresh life, as he believed that during times of conflict, people needed messages of inspiration, love, and hope rather than criticism and negativity.
In his own words, “... my ideas started to change. What was beneficial for those floundering times was not the frustration and criticism born out of negative attitudes but a hopeful prospect for the future.” 
Most of Kim's paintings are easily distinguishable by his choice of color: always opting for vivid and rich tones of yellows, warm greens, soothing blues, and of course, shades of pink that exude love, compassion, and wholeheartedness. He paints bright peonies, flowers, and birds, which are all folk symbols in Korean traditional painting, and Kim supplements these images with the shapes of hearts or sweet phrases of warmth. In his three-part series: 'With You', 'I and You', and 'You and I', Kim paints the English phrase “with you”, the Chinese characters “我中有你” and “我有中你”(literally meaning ‘I have you in me’ and ‘you have me in you’) and the Korean words “늘” and “ㅎㅎ” which mean “always” and “haha” (the latter being Korean Internet slang). It is as if he inscribes these plain texts onto his paintings to instill love and hope in a literal sense. He is also literal with his titles: works are oftentimes named with the words “love” or “heart” included. The message he portrays is straightforward and almost impossible to miss, proposing again that during times of hardship, love and hope should not be shrouded or tainted by ambiguity and miscommunication.