Too Much Is as Bad as Too Little (Mint)

Even good things suffocate when there is too much of them.
Beauty, too, can become fatigue the moment it overflows.〈Too Much is as Bad as Too Little〉 began with a question: is more of a good thing always better? I filled the canvas with peonies, symbols of wealth and beauty, and in the midst of them the figure pinches her nose, as if the fragrance were too heavy. Just as a lovely scent becomes unbearable in excess, beauty, desire, and passion can lose their original meaning the moment they overflow. I believe Korean painting is a ‘painting to be read.’ So what mattered more than the fact that the flowers are beautiful was the story created when the peonies and the figure’s gesture meet. This work also launched a series in the Art Nouveau style, weaving flowers and figures together with decorative lines and patterns. Later, 〈Too Much is as Bad as Too Little〉 became the main card image for Woori Card’s ‘Card of Essentials’ series, meeting many people in everyday life beyond the museum walls. That a work about ‘excess’ spread the most widely of all leaves a strange resonance. Come to think of it, with greed as with beauty, what matters may be not how much you have but whether you know where to stop.