Today, we would like to talk about two artists who lived in different eras yet share striking similarities: Claude Monet and Ahae.
Although their work methods and chosen media differ, this text follows their artistic paths, focusing on the shared attitudes they reveal in the way they perceive and pursue light.

Asking the Same Question with Different Tools

Monet and Ahae worked nearly a hundred years apart.
Monet painted in Giverny, France, while Ahae worked in Anseong, Korea—entirely different places. One held a paintbrush; the other chose a camera.

Yet both artists filled their later years with art and repeatedly returned to the same scenes. Above all, light stands at the very center of their work.

Ahae has often stated that light is not merely a visual element, but a powerful force that penetrates everything. His work can be understood as an exploration of how light reveals objects, space, and the energy of life itself.

Artists Who First Considered Where Light Would Remain

(Left) Claude Monet, Water Lilies series – Installation view at the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris

(Right) Ahae, Water series – Dedicated exhibition space at the Louvre Museum, Tuileries Garden, Paris

The image on the left shows Claude Monet’s Water Lilies series, permanently exhibited at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris.
This monumental series spans nearly 100 meters in total length and was completed in Monet’s later years. What makes this work especially remarkable is the space in which it is displayed.

In his will, Monet expressed his wish that these paintings be viewed in oval rooms illuminated by natural light. The Orangerie galleries were designed accordingly, and to this day, countless visitors come to experience these works. Rather than standing in front of a painting, viewers feel as though they have stepped into the very center of the pond itself.

When Ahae held his exhibition at the Louvre, his water photographs were displayed in a dedicated gallery inside the Tuileries Garden next to the Orangerie. This space, too, was designed as an oval structure filled with natural light.

Both artists presented their major late-period series in oval spaces illuminated by natural light. Many viewers instinctively think of Monet when encountering Ahae’s work.

The Pond: Artificial, Yet the Most Natural Space

(Left)Claude Monet's Giverny Garden

(Right)Claude Monet, Water Lilies, 1914–1917

One of the clearest elements connecting Monet and Ahae is the pond.

After settling in Giverny, Monet dug an artificial pond, planted water lilies, and created his garden by hand. He rarely left this space, and in his later years devoted himself almost entirely to the Water Lilies series. Water was the ideal medium through which changes in light and color could be revealed. The sky, clouds, trees, and lilies reflected on the surface transformed endlessly with time and weather.

Ahae, Through My Window, 2011

Ahae followed a similar yet distinct path. In Anseong, Korea, he constructed a large, precisely designed oval pond. Unlike Monet’s pond, Ahae’s contains nothing—no lilies, no bridges, no ornaments. Only water remains.
Because of this emptiness, ripples spread more gently, and changes in light appear with even greater subtlety.

Though both ponds are artificial, they paradoxically become places where the most natural phenomena of light unfold.

Different Eras, the Same Attitude Toward Capturing Light

By the mid-19th century, when Monet was active, photography had begun to develop in earnest.
As cameras advanced, realistically depicting nature and objects was no longer the exclusive role of painting. Painters were forced to seek new visual languages of their own.

Around this time, the mass production of paint in tubes allowed artists to work outdoors. Whereas painters had previously sketched outside and completed works indoors, Monet reversed this process. From drawing to coloring, he completed nearly the entire work outdoors. As a result, his brushstrokes grew faster and rougher in an effort to capture rapidly changing light.

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872

In 1872, Monet presented Impression, Sunrise.
The painting was harshly criticized as careless and unfinished, mocked as “nothing more than an impression.” Ironically, this phrase would later give rise to the term “Impressionism.”
Despite the criticism, Monet remained unwavering, continuing to explore how ordinary scenes transform under light.

(Left)Claude Monet, Haystacks, End of Summer, 1890

(Right)Claude Monet, Haystacks, Snow Effect, 1891

Claude Monet, Rouen Cathedral series, 1892

Claude Monet, Poplars series, 1891

As seen in his Haystacks, Rouen Cathedral, and Poplars series, Monet painted the same subject dozens of times, recording how the color of light changed with season, time, and weather. Repeatedly looking at the same scene—that was Monet’s method.

Ahae also pursued light but in a different way.
Rather than going outdoors, he chose to stand before a window. He observed for long periods how direct sunlight acted upon nature beyond the glass, capturing moments that painting could not, using photography instead.

(Left)Ahae, Reflection, 2012

(Right)Ahae, Waves on the Pond, 2012

Ahae, too, photographed the same scene repeatedly—not distant travels or exotic landscapes, but simply the pond, trees, and sky outside his window. Yet depending on season, weather, time, and wind, the surface of the water revealed entirely different facets. The light when reflected on gentle ripples formed gold and silver hues, sometimes distinct patterns resembling polished metal.

For this reason, Ahae continuously recorded the same scene.
Although the scene appears unchanged, the same moment never returns. This constant transformation became the essence of the work.

If Monet followed light with rapid brushstrokes, Ahae sought not to miss it through endless shutter clicks.
Monet stepped outside to confront light directly; Ahae waited for light at his window. Taking different approaches, both artists devoted themselves to capturing the fleeting differences created by light.

The Unending Question of What It Means to See

Claude Monet, The Japanese Bridge, 1899

Despite losing much of his eyesight to cataracts in his later years, Monet never set down his brush. Relying on memory and decades of observing light, he continued to paint. As a result, his late paintings became increasingly abstract in color and form. While shapes blurred, his sensitivity to light seems to have grown even sharper. These works reveal that what Monet ultimately sought was not the objects themselves, but light.

Ahae also continued working despite nearly losing sight in one eye.
Across millions of photographs, light and shadow reflected on water are filled with the energy of life. Both artists despite failing eyesight persisted and continued through their work to ask the question: What does it mean to see?

For Monet, light belonged to the visible spectrum perceived by the retina. Objects were not fixed entities but impressions constantly changing with light.
For Ahae, light was a fundamental energy that revealed both the visible and the invisible. Declaring that “everything is light,” he sought the essence of the world and life itself through shadows reflected on water.

To Look at Light, To Continue Art

When viewing Ahae’s Water series, Monet’s Water Lilies come to mind; when looking at Monet’s lilies, Ahae’s water reflections seem to overlap. This is a shared way of seeing the world through light.

Although they lived in different times and worked in different media, both artists ultimately stood before the same question:
What does light reveal, and how should we look at it?
That question remains just as relevant today.