Gallery Talk with Raphael Rubinstein

In the course of his career, painter Po Kim  worked in three distinct modes, gestural abstraction, realist still-life and symbolist figuration. This talk will examine each of these periods and look at how Po Kim’s work related to the art of the period, especially that of other artists working in New York. Rubinstein will also seek to understand the motives that sparked his stylistic restlessness, and ask whether his early experiences of war and violence in Korea and Japan may have helped inspire his evident faith in the power of art.

Raphael Rubinstein is a New York-based poet and art critic. From 1997 to 2007 he was a senior editor at Art in America, where he continues to be a contributing editor. He is currently professor of critical studies at the University of Houston School of Art. 

“Po Kim: Making Impossible Demands on Art” is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Po Kim: In Search of Arcadia, on view thru December 1, 2017 at the Korea Society, New York.

The Korea Society presents
Po Kim: In Search of Arcadia 
as the first exhibition in the
MASTER SERIES:

Po Kim was among the first generation of Korean artists who immigrated to the United States in the 1950s. Instead of committing to any one school, Kim continuously explored various styles and forms, from Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, to a hyper-realistic idiom in the 1970s, to figurative and allegorical works in the 1990s and 2000s. 

Po Kim’s diverse body of work oscillates between an expressive release of trauma and a yearning for an Arcadian escape, echoing a trajectory of extraordinary events throughout his life. As the first exhibition in the Korea Society’s Master Series, Po Kim: In Search of Arcadia presents a selection of works from Kim’s early period in New York within the context of later works from his subsequent stylistic transformations, revealing a progressive journey towards the idyllic safe haven he created in his art and in New York.

Kim’s works have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the U.S., Europe, and Korea, and are held in important public collections including The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Chicago Art Institute, National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea, and the Seoul Art Center.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Donghwa Cultural Foundation and The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Foundation.