After his debut in 1959, he continuously wrote modernist poetry that expressed diverse artistic experiences through the use of sensual language.
As an artist that began with literature and soon expanded in multiple directions to work in dance, art, theatre, and music.
Kim Youngtae is famous for his diverse writings, covering poetry, dance criticism, and Western painting.
A surprising point is that much of his writing was done as he was simultaneously working at the Korea Exchange Bank from 1968 to 1992.
With Issue 6 in 1964, older members were replaced with newer poets and Kim Youngtae was one of them.
[7] Kim Youngtae's poetry has been reviewed as an exploration of love's ambivalence through the relationship between the self and the Other.
[1] His poem, “Meolli inneun mudeom” (멀리 있는 무덤 Faraway Tomb), was written in memorial of Kim Soo-young, a South Korean poet that greatly influenced Kim Youngtae in his youth, and was later made into a dance performance and play.
[8] When Kim was a middle school student, he saw a photobook on ballet and became enchanted with dance.
[3][9] At the time, dance criticism generally existed only as translations of foreign writings, and Kim Youngtae's dance criticisms received highly favorable reviews because he was one of the first people in Korea to personally attend performances and write extensively on them.
[12] In line with his college major, Kim frequently held private exhibitions of his own drawings, which centered around the subjects of dance and music.
Beginning in 1977, he (along with novelist Lee Ze-ha) also began drawing caricatures of poets for the covers of Moonji Publisher's line of poetry books.
His drawings are characterized by rough and coarse lines that seem on the verge of crumbling.
[14][15] His personal typeface—chogaenurinche (초개눌인체)— is also similar to his drawing style, distinguished by how it seems to easily flow with unique arches.
[10] With Kim's unique aesthetic sense and sensual language, his poetry tends to be somewhat abstruse and difficult.
[16] Although the subject was described in an objective manner, he would simultaneously use strange words and diction in order to construct a fantasy-like atmosphere.
[17] By simultaneously representing two objects that seemingly had no relation to each other whatsoever, readers are thus able to imagine a different world.
In his later writings, the sensuous impressions of objects still appear, but his own subjective voice intervenes in these descriptions, revealing Kim's own introspection regarding himself and his life.
With his final poetry collection released in 2005, Nugunga danyeogatdeusi (누군가 다녀갔듯이As If Someone Stopped By), Kim Youngtae's poetry becomes “a conversation with the self.”[18] The narrator observes the object, experiencing it in a sensuous manner until he finally inserts himself and completes the landscape.
[19] Kim Youngtae constructs his poetic world by giving language to diverse forms of art.
He has been noted for perceiving and expressing art in and of itself in his works, especially for using his personal artistic experiences as the foundation for his works—an unusual characteristic that is difficult to find in other Korean poetry.
[16] For instance, his poem “Balladeu” (발라드 Ballad) is a linguistic rendering of Frédéric Chopin's piano compositions.
Chopin's music is constructed as a preceding text to poetry, so that the sound of music is rendered into metaphors such as “water drops falling at the bottom of the spine” and “a fleshy piece of trembling zephyrs.”[20] Sounds, the body's movements, and visual images are linked to the other senses and manifested through language—a common writing technique that threads Kim Youngtae's poetry.
《물거품을 마시면서 아껴가면서》, 천년의 시작, 2005 / Mulgeopumeul masimyeonseo akkyeogamyeonseo (To Drink and Save Bubbles), Poem sijak, 2005.
《유태인이 사는 마을의 겨울》, 중앙문화사, 1965 / Yutaeini saneun maeurui gyeoul (Winter in the Village of the Exile), Jungang munhwasa, 1965.
/ Jangpanji wie saida dubyeong (Two Bottles of Cider on Top of the Linoleum Floors), Chaek Sesang, 2002.
/ Galsaek mommaedeul, areumdaun usandeul (Brown Figures, Beautiful Umbrellas), Jimunsa, 1985.
/ Nunui nara satangbinudeul (Candy Soaps in the Land of Snow), Noonbit, 1993.
/ Sarajineun sawon wie dari naerigo (The Moon Descends Above the Disappearing Temple), Noonbit, 1997.
/ Chumeuro punggyeongeul mandeundamyeon (Creating Landscapes Through Dance), Seoul Munhak Forum, 2000.
/ Sarainneun chum nuneuro sseun si (Vibrant Dance, Poetry Written with the Eyes), Noonbit, 2004.