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It is with a heavy heart that Kavi Gupta gallery announces the death of painter Young-Il Ahn. The esteemed painter passed away over the weekend in Los Angeles.
Ahn’s most famous paintings belong to his Water series, a body of work that associated with Dansaekhwa, an aesthetic position specific to Korea, which expresses natural processes through a monochromatic palette. As a Korean-born painter working in the U.S., Ahn is unique among Dansaekhwa artists.
Born in 1934 in Gaeseong, Korea, Ahn earned his BFA from Seoul National University in 1958, and relocated permanently to the United States in 1966. For most of his career, Ahn lived in Southern California, where he found inspiration in music and nature. A private person, he immersed himself in his studio practice where he developed a signature impasto method that was exacting and intensive. His singular technique is evident in his beloved Water Series, on which he worked for more than 30 years. In his memoir And still it flows towards me: a life lived with art, Ahn recounts his experience being shipwrecked in dense fog off the coast of Santa Monica. The moment the fog lifted that day, he witnessed a sublime interplay of light, shadow, and color on the water, and attempted in earnest to communicate it through his Water paintings. Ahn’s work has recently been the subject of monographic exhibitions at the Long Beach Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Prior to his passing, Ahn was in the process of planning his second solo exhibition with Kavi Gupta, scheduled to open in 2021. His paintings are included in the collections of LACMA, the Long Beach Museum of Art, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, among others. He is survived by his wife Soraya and their daughters. Condolences may be directed to the family or to Kavi Gupta gallery.
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Young-Il Ahn, Unexpected Light
LACMA | Los Angeles, CA 25 February 2017 - 22 July 2018 Korean-American artist Young Il Ahn was born in 1934 in Gaeseong, historically known as the capital of the Goryeo dynasty (912–1392) and geographically located in North Korea today. While acknowledged as a child prodigy, Ahn carried out his most prolific work in Los Angeles since his arrival in the U.S. in 1966. Since then, Ahn’s works have consistently focused on his interest in the local surroundings rather than the country he left. This exhibition showcases many works from his best-known series, Water, which was inspired by a near-death incident on the Pacific Ocean in 1983, as well as his most recent works. The Water series marks a notable shift in Ahn’s style from semi abstraction to complete abstraction, which has continued to define his style to this day. This exhibition marks the first-ever introduction of a Korean-American artist at LACMA, highlighting the ever expanding diversity and realities within the ethnic Korean population in Los Angeles. -
Young-Il Ahn
Water CLPG 17, 2017 Oil on canvas
50 x 44 x 2 in
127 x 111.8 x 5.1 cm -
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Young-Il Ahn, Young-Il Ahn
Kavi Gupta | 219 N. Elizabeth St. Chicago, IL, 60607 14 July - 25 August 2018 Kavi Gupta is pleased to present a monographic exhibition of paintings by Young-Il Ahn. Born in Gaeseong, Korea, in 1934, Ahn is renowned for his intricate, large-scale paintings, which explore his relationship with beauty, nature and music. His work is frequently associated with Dansaekhwa, an aesthetic position specific to Korea, which expresses natural processes through a mostly monochromatic palette -
Young-Il Ahn
Water DLMN 18, 2018 Oil on canvas
56 x 36 x 2 in
142.2 x 91.4 x 5.1 cm -
Young Il-Ahn, When Sky Meets Water
Long Beach Museum of Art | Long Beach, CA 10 November 2017 - 28 January 2018 This exhibition is the second show of Young-Il Ahn's work at the Long Beach Museum of Art. It honors the celebrated South Korean artist with a major thirty-five-year retrospective, presenting...
