In the Realm of Yongwang (Dragon King) – Paintings by Dongkuk Ahn, Exhibition Catalogue, 2007, Jeffery Wechsler

This group of paintings by Dongkuk (Don) Ahn in the current exhibition makes for exciting viewing. Nearly all of the paintings exemplify a method of rapidly applied brushstrokes that hurtle across the surface with extreme speed and spontaneity. This is a technique that Ahn has employed at frequent intervals during nearly half a century of distinguished creativity. Throughout these productive years, Ahn has followed a path of knowledgeable interpenetration of Eastern and Western aesthetics, merging contemporary concepts and practices of abstraction with techniques and subjects drawn from his Korean heritage… [Read More]

 

Black Fish, JoongAng Ilbo, 2007

<In translation>

 

Don Ahn’s Zen Paintings: The Substance of Speed, The Fullness of the Void, Exhibition Catalogue, 2004, Jeffrey Wechsler

At first glance, the current exhibition of ink paintings by Don Ahn may appear to represent a particular stage, or even a concentrated moment, within an artist’s career. Together, the works form a coherent visual ensemble: sweeping gestures of black and watery gray dance across expanses of white rice paper. In each, there is a relatively spare number of major brushstrokes; most are enlivened by trails of spatters or drips. One could easily imagine the artist moving from one surface to another, quickly filling a waiting array of sheets, working out a sudden inspiration within a given temporary theme. It is therefore important and intriguing to realize that the paintings gathered here were made at various times spanning over four decades… [Read More]

 

The House with a Lotus Pond, Neighbor Magazin, 2002

A Fourth of July party held at a garden presided over by haetae stone statues (Korean mythical lions). Supporting beams of Douglas fir airlifted from Oregon. The Stars and Stripes flying above a tiled roof. East and West meet harmoniously at the Habib House, the residence of the US Ambassador, which sits serenely atop a hill near the stonewall avenues of Deoksoo Palace… [Read More]

 

Art in Embassies, 2002

Don Ahn is a Korean-American whose Eastern sensibilities permeate the canvases that he paints in his New York studio. A mood of serenity exists in Ahn’s paintings, juxtaposed with motion and vibrant colors, which demands attention. These colors, combined with the artist’s wide brushstrokes and the way that he splatters and drips paint, all lend to the fluidity and movement in his canvases. Ahn has lived and worked in the United States since the early 1960s, and his work is in collections that include The Museum of Modern Art in New York… [Read More]

 

Don Ahn’s painting: Record of Nostalgia and Incomplete Dreams, Exhibition Catalogue, 2000, Gordon Rhee

Each of us has a past and memories associated with the experiences of that past. Remembrance of bygone days-verdant hills and winding trails, fleecy clouds and singing streams, the trace of certain words reminiscent of childhood, incidental retrieval of facts from oblivion, situations deduced from casual observation – the nostalgia sometimes serves as psychological palliative to fill the deficiency or void of our emotions or can provide a handy escape from our realities. Complete revival of one’s memory of the past may be impossible to achieve. Because of this uncertainty of memory, our travel into that world of vagueness can be a process of self-affirmation that takes place in the secret space of privacy and self-contentment (this can lead to a sort of narcissistic mix of melancholy and delight)… [Read More]

 

Of Asians Among the Abstractionists, New York Times, 1997, Holland Cotter

One of the chief lessons taught by the ”new” art history is how richly impure a thing art is: a product of influences and coincidences rather than of spontaneous generation. That idea is illuminated in a surprisingly beautiful exhibition at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University titled ”Asian Traditions/Modern Expressions: Asian-American Artists and Abstraction 1945-1970,” and in a smaller satellite show at the Taipei Gallery in Manhattan… [Read More]

 

Don Ahn (Dongkuk Ahn): Recent Work, Exhibition Catalogue, 1996, Jeffrey Wechsler

This group of recent paintings by Don Ahn stands at the newest point along a sustained, logical progression of technique and imagery that has run through the artist’s career virtually from its conception. Always concerned with both representation and abstraction, and retaining the East Asian notion that all art is to some extent abstract, Ahn has allowed natural imagery and the process of abstraction to find varying levels of balance within his work. At times nature comes to the fore, at times abstraction does so, the relative proportionality between them creating the basis for a fresh aesthetic equilibrium… [Read More]

 

Art: Two Shows South of Houston St., New York Times, 1972, John Canaday

Anyone not yet familiar with the cluster of galleries just south of Houston Street can get a favorable impression of what goes on down there by visiting a couple of current exhibitions, Pat Steir’s, which opens today at Paley & Lowe to run until Oct. 18, and a double‐header of paintings by Tony King and Bruce Everett at O.K. Harris, closing next Satur day… [Read More]

 

Art: Old Drawings That Do Turn Up, New York Times, 1971, John Canaday

Old master drawings are more and more difficult for dealers to find, and one who does a good job of hunting them out on excursions to England said this week: “I have a new bunch, including a Rembrandt and an Ingres, but there won’t be a show. I’m just telephoning my regular customers.”… [Read More]

 

To My Self Portrait, Exhibition Catalogue, 1963, Don Ahn

It is I / I, Immortalized / I, belonging to the eternity / I, a man, a human being, / To me, I is a symbol of human being, / Through this I / I see the billion Is / The species, homo sapiens,