Fig. 46. Yun Hyong- keun (윤형근 尹亨根, 1928–2007). Umber Blue (청다), 1975. Oil on linen, 513/16 × 383/16 in. (130 × 97 cm). National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea the paper substrate itself. Untitled, from 1984, is com- tion of ink painters called Munghimhoe (묵림회, Ink posed of long vertical cuts made at regular intervals and Forest Group). Wrestling with the same issues about style an undulating horizontal tear (昀椀g. 47). A gray- blue color, and materiality in relation to modernism and cultural a mix of ink and gouache, radiates outward from the identity, Kwon and Suh responded quite di昀昀erently. center; it looks as if by capillary action to be bleeding Similarly, all the artists discussed here have contended from the vertical slashes. The color darkens the cuts, with domestic and global artistic conventions and making them more visible—indeed, the darkest lineages. Their works reveal the various methods and and thickest “line” is the horizontal space formed by coexisting practices with which they responded. Many tearing. This gap compels us to take a closer look to see knew each other and debated about individual and if there is anything behind it. Kwon submitted to the national identity, politics, and art. Many became profes- paper by choosing to apply the color on the reverse and sors at the leading art schools and inspired future letting it seep through to the front. Thus, in returning to generations, creating legacies of their own. They are parts ink, Kwon challenged its supremacy and the o昀琀en- of a vast whole that makes up Korean art. Echoing the glamorized act of laying ink on paper. artists’ e昀昀orts against strict categorizations and fore- Kwon is a 昀椀tting close to this essay, since it began grounding the importance of retaining plurality, the use with Suh Se Ok. From the formal di昀昀erences in their of “s” in the exhibition title, as well as the plural form of works, it may come as a surprise that the two were each of the four themes, is as deliberate as the selection contemporaries and part of an in昀氀uential artist associa- of objects and their groupings into loose constellations. 44