After taking part in the 7th Sao Paulo Biennale in 1963, Kim Whanki set out on a new artistic challenge that took him to New York, USA. Embarking on a lonely struggle to build his unique world of art in New York City—a smelting furnace of artists gathered from all over the world—Kim pursued change through diverse experiments on form and material, while attempting new compositions based on “”dots, lines, planes and colors.” The result was his creation of many works of a new style, among which was the “heart” icon.
The 1965 ”Heart” works, painted on paper, were cheerful images of large heart shapes painted in the center of the picture-plane, and surrounding areas filled with multicolored dots. These paintings are unparalleled, even by the artist’s other heart works. Kim Whanki’s “heart” icons appeared in various places within the broad spectrum of his world of art. At first the “hearts” appeared as important formative elements in the works, but they were gradually deconstructed or reassembled, becoming pure culminations of beauty. Ultimately, they remain in Kim’s works as individual “dots” or as empty spaces among the countless dots.
