Waterdrops No. 10 1977

Kim Tschang-yeul painted "Waterdrops No. 10" with oil on canvas. I’m just imagining Kim in the studio, maybe even he was in Paris back then? Getting lost in the process of rendering these drops. Look how each one is different! Some are fat, some skinny, some are about to roll away. You can almost feel the tension of the water clinging to the canvas. It’s like he's trying to capture a fleeting moment, a fragile beauty. It's really mesmerizing, this repetition, like a mantra. You start to see the world differently after looking at this painting. You look at the actual world through these oil droplets. He's making us slow down and see the ordinary in a new light. It reminds me of On Kawara's date paintings—artists are constantly riffing off each other, even without knowing it. Ultimately it all comes down to taking the time to really see the world.