Burnt Umber & Ultramarine 1991

Yun Hyong–keun made this painting with Burnt Umber and Ultramarine, but when? Who knows. I like that. It’s an un-dated painting of permeable rectangles in dialogue with a milky ground. I can imagine the artist, Yun, coaxing these blurred shapes into being. He’s improvising, probably on the floor, maybe staining the canvas, letting the dark pigment soak and spread. Look at how the paint bleeds ever so slightly. I wonder if Mark Rothko saw this and was like, "Woah." There’s something so beautiful about the simplicity of it all. It’s like Yun is whispering, "Hey, let’s just see what happens if I put this color next to that one." And in that spirit of experimentation, something magical emerges.