Throughout his career, including the Paris and New York periods, Kim Whanki maintained a strong affection for paper work. He attempted diverse methods based on the material characteristics of different types of paper—from the professional art paper of East and West to easily obtainable newspapers, magazine pages, telephone directories and even envelopes from shops. While some of the merits of paper were that it was light, easily acquirable in daily life, and easy to work with, Kim’s fascination with paper was due to his interest in discovering new varieties of formative beauty that could be expressed through paper.
All during his New York period, Kim produced oil on paper series. works. While working with diluted oil paints in place of thick layers, the artist was captivated by the charm of the paint soaking in and spreading on the Korean paper. His experimentation with the material properties of Korean paper and oil paint led to the development of his unique method of making dots with thinly diluted oils on raw cotton canvas to achieve soaking and running effects on the fabric, and consequently served as the momentum for completion of his independent world of lyric abstraction—“all-over dot Painting.”
