Pine trees grow in any country of the world, but Koreans think them as unique ones in Korea. Chinese or Italians are free to sing about pine trees. They can love pine trees with all their hearts. However, Koreans believe that pine trees are basically nothing else than the trees of Korea, the trees of Korean people, and that their blood never ceases to flow in pine trees. The paintings of Kyong-In Kim are the evidences that confirm such a belief of Korean people. While we look at his paintings, we can feel that pine needles break out on our arms, pine cones hang on the tip of our fingers, and pine scales cover our skin. His paintings are such a mirror, because they represent so vividly the reality of ourselves. Let's sing our traditional songs. Then, pine trees will dance with a great enthusiasm. Their shoulder dancing and the form of the dance are ours. The enthusiasm the pine trees show as if they have just finished to drink a cup of rice wine is also ours. Sometimes they look like revolving rapidly but know when they should pause to recover their breathing. In other times they look like soaring upwards, but know when they should twist their trunks and branches. They are really our traditional melody and rhythm, and our spirit and enthusiasm. When we look at "The Pine Trees of Hoymok Village" of Kyong-In Kim, we are naturally reminded of the humorous shoulder dancing of old countrywomen. When we look at "Old Pine Trees of Najong Village", we are suddenly reminded of charming lines of a dancing Buddhist nun's bare arm stretched forwards straightly. When we watch "A Pine Tree in Front of a Rocky Mountain", we cannot help ourselves but think the rapid and lively movement of the bodies of a farmers' dancing troupe which dances enthusiastically in their farmers' hat dance. While we are soaked in these cheerfulness and emotion, we realize that Kyong-In Kim did not paint simply the forms of pine trees, but he painted the spirit and "elan vital" of pine trees, and also the energy and rhythm of this land we Koreans love more than anything in the world. Standing in front of his paintings, we feel to get drunk on wine because of the enzyme of humanity fermented by the long yearning for my own people and my own land. Didn't a poet say "I long for seeing you, even if you are by my side"? As much as that yearning, pine trees have been faithfully by our side, but they are our soul that we are more ardently yearning for. They say any landscape change in ten years. Kyoung-In Kim continued to paint pine trees for more than ten years. Therefore it is not strange at all that his recent paintings are a little different from the old ones. Actually his recent ones are brighter and have clear blue color more than old ones. Moreover, the abstract and symbolic elements increased in his paintings. But the proper spirit and strength of his pine trees are always the same as before. Aren't pine trees famous as much for their upright and constancy as for their enthusiasm? "Peach blossoms are red by the side of a high and green pine tree. Peach blossoms, you have no reason to be proud, because you soon pass away in this spring, but only the pine tree keeps the greenness of spring all through the year." This is a traditional poem of an obscure Korean poet. As we see in this poem, pine trees do not forget the promise of spring all through the year. This constancy is the virtue of pine trees. We recognize such a constant faithfulness as the most desirable one of human virtues. We think the restaurant keeping the taste of its dishes constant is the best. We think the man with constant character and attitude is the best. To the eyes of Koreans, capricious change of behavior is the most worthless and foolish. The best knows the best. The man who knows such a value of pine trees and practise it is truly descended as same as pine trees from one ancestor and one blood vessel. He is a true Korean. In Korean language the word "pine tree" means "chief". Really pine trees are the chief of all the trees. It is not because they are the tallest or the most magnificent. Pine trees are the chief of trees, because no trees are equal to pine trees in the upright and constancy. When the loyal scholar Sam-Moon Sung failed in his plot to restore the dethroned king Danjong and he himself was executed, he could keep his firm conviction that he was the victor in the end, because he knew that the everlasting chief was residing in the very heart of himself. He left behind this poem: "When I die, what would be my body? Surely it will be a lonely pine tree on the tallest top of Mt. Bongnai. When all the world is covered by snow, nothing but the pine tree will be ever green." So much devoted to his work, Kyong-In Kim did not arrange systematically, but continues to confirm in his collection of numerous data that the lines and forms of his pine trees and those of Korean traditional buildings, industrial art objects and designs come from the same source. He shows clearly even the making a stroke by brush is similar to the forms of pine trees. According to Plato's theory of Ideas, pine trees are the essential source of all forms and rhythms of Korean culture. In spite of numerous invasions and crisis we Koreans could keep firmly our proper character and value system, because pine trees representing those have been always by our side. There is a proverb saying that "Koreans are born under pine trees, live with them and die under their shadow." Isn't it true? Pine trees provide to us the material of our buildings or firewood. We eat the cake flavored with pine endodermis. We use pine resin as medicine. When we die, our body is put in a coffin made of pine planks and buried with its smell. In this respect, Kyong-In Kim himself is a pine tree, who surpasses anyone in loving pine trees and is visiting many times almost every corner of our land to search good and beautiful pine trees. The fragrance of a pine tree comes out of him. His looks resemble the form of a pine tree. His character which seems gentle but persevere with a great strength is the same as that of a pine tree. Under the harsh military dictatorship he expressed boldly, with no hesitation, his resisting spirit and the painful experiences in the dark reality. When democracy is restored and the waves of egotism and money worship rise high, he praise the spirit of community through pine trees. Thus he shows a model of an artist, noble and never compromising. In this exhibition Kyong-In Kim presents not only his paintings of pine trees but also some pieces depicting men in abstract forms or drawings. He is conscious of the fact that after all he should return to the form of man. Therefore from time to time he has to put his hands to drawing the form of man. The objects that will adorn the last stage of his career may be farmers or common people in cities or intellectuals. Such a kind of people will be painted later on his canvases, but it is clear that each of them is also the man of a pine tree, who grows a pine tree in their heart. "Look at the green pine needles in that field. Nobody is attending to them. Though whipped by the wind, rain and snow, they remain evergreen all over the world. They shout to the sad and painful past days never to come back again. We will learn with our sweat their wisdom. We will be pine needles in a barren filed." - from the song "As Green Pine Needles in a Barren Field"
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