Ongoing exhibition The World of Hwang Young-sung at Shanghai Himalayas Museum resembles a realm for innocent children with its colorful symbols that seem to have come straight from a cartoon wonderland. It's hard to imagine that the artist behind this exhibition is now 74 years old.

Born in 1941, Hwang, who is the director of the Gwangju Museum of Art, has become a significant figure in the history of South Korean modern art. Since the 1980s, his work has been constantly featured in exhibitions around the globe.

This, his second solo exhibition on the Chinese mainland, displays works made since 2000 across four sections - Family Story, Monochrome Story, Mix Media and Chinese Poetry.

South Korean artist Hwang Young-sung at work

Wartime memory

Growing up in Kangwon-do in the central part of the Korean Peninsula, Hwang experienced a time of tribulation during the Korean War (1950-53), losing his parents and having to live with other relatives. In 1961, he went to study art at Chosun University in Gwangju, where he has since settled.

Family became a major theme of Hwang's work as early as the 1970s. In the beginning, he painted a household on canvas, featuring a gathering of different family members as well as cattle of varying sizes. For the artist, having a complete family was his dream, especially when he beheld his peers' happiness with their parents.

Painting offers comfort to him, and he became convinced that family is the fundamental unit of the world. Gradually, the familial figures in his work became more and more abstract and turned into rounded symbols.

A mixed media piece from Family Story series

In 1980, he paid his first visit to the US with a group of Korean artists and was exhibited in New York. The metropolis made him feel ashamed about his works, which were mostly about the countryside. It was also in New York that Hwang saw Picasso's work for the first time, which inspired him to immediately embark a trip to Europe to see more masterpieces. On arriving in Paris, he was surprised to hear that all of his works in New York had been sold.

After that, Hwang rose to fame in the art scene and held more exhibitions in his homeland. Meanwhile, he paid more visits to countries around the world, among them India, Egypt, Kenya, Mexico and Canada.

A secret garden of symbols

In a sense, it was his many flights across the world that stimulated Hwang to change his painting style in the 1990s.

The symbols on the canvases began to equal each other in size, and later form into grids, which are arranged neatly in a reserved manner. The artist told the Global Times that this came from viewing the grid-like scenery far below him when he flew. Seen from heaven, things were smaller and equivalent to each other.

A painting from Family Story series

Through his trips to different cultures, Hwang became more and more convinced that all civilizations are interlinked and all creatures on this planet are equally important.

He added that he wants a sense of harmony and happiness in his work.

Chinese poetry and philosophy

At the current exhibition, Hwang presents the series Poetry - Family Story for the first time in China. The series was created after his first solo exhibition in Beijing in 2012.

In this series, Hwang turns poems from ancient and modern China into symbolic grid paintings, rewriting lines in his unique artistic format.

A painting features one ancient Chinese poem. Photos: Courtesy of Shanghai Himalayas Museum

Hwang told the Global Times that his generation learned Chinese characters and, like many Chinese people, Koreans love such great Chinese poets as Li Bai, Cao Cao and Tao Yuanming.

Gwangju, where the artist has been living for more than 40 years, had cultural exchanges with China as early as the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The artist said that Confucian disciplines such as respecting elders and obeying traditional social etiquette are almost intrinsic for many Koreans. That's why in his works people may encounter lines of poetry such as, "who dare claim that the green grass might somehow repay the sun for its warm hearth?" which is a tribute to a mother by her traveling son.

Date: Until November 7, 10 am to 6 pm (closed Mondays)

Venue: Shanghai Himalayas Museum

上海喜马拉雅美术馆

Address: 3/F, Section A, 869 Yinghua Road

樱花路869号A区3楼

Tickets: 30 yuan

Call 5033-9801 for details