In the course of his career, painter Po Kim worked in three distinct modes, gestural abstraction, realist still-life and symbolist figuration. This talk examines each of these periods and looks at how Po Kim’s work related to the art of the period, especially that of other artists working in New York. Rubinstein also seeks to understand the motives that sparked Kim’s stylistic restlessness, and asks 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.