Yoon Kwang Cho

About the Artist

The ceramist Yoon Kwang Cho forged his own unique style of ceramics by modernizing the simple, free spirit with which he transferred culturally from Joseon-era buncheong ware, thus embodying Korean artistry while also achieving universality on the world stage. Upon graduating from Hongik University’s Department of Crafts in 1973, he immediately made a name for himself by winning the Grand Prize at the Dong-A Handicraft Competition. Under the close mentorship of Choi Sunu, Yoon garnered further attention as a young artist by holding a joint exhibition with Chang Uc-chin. Two decades later, in the 2000s, Yoon presented his works internationally, earning worldwide fame with invitational exhibitions held at Galerie Besson in France, at the UK’s most prominent ceramics gallery, as well as the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Seattle Art Museum in the United States. Having left an indelible mark worldwide in the field of ceramic arts, his works are now found in the permanent collections of the, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago and, again at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2004, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, held an exhibition to mark his selection as Artist of the Year. In 2008, Yoon was awarded the Kyung-Ahm Prize for Arts by …. Since 1994, he has been creating artwork without the help of assistants at his home and ceramics studio built in the deep woods of Angang-eup, Gyeongju.

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Yoon Kwang-Cho’s Ceramic Art, Its Identity, and Its Aesthetic Value

Introduction

The ceramic artist Yoon Kwang-Cho inherited and modernized the tradition of buncheong ware that originally blossomed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Korea. The country was a leader in ceramic art, along with China, throughout the Goryeo (918–1392) and Joseon (1392–1910) Dynasties, finding collectors as far-flung as Europe. However, Korea failed to modernize its ceramic arts and requisite processes, which resulted in an outmodedness, drifting away from the dominant sculptural ceramics styles, as more contemporary methods and aesthetic trends emerged under modernism and only advanced in the contemporary epoch. At a time when Korean ceramics had withered, Yoon found a way out of the destitution by participating in exhibitions at overseas museums to reinvigorate the pottery practice, and eventually established himself as an internationally acclaimed ceramist of Korean origin. Out of this recognition, he has been invited to exhibit his works at numerous museums and galleries including the Galerie Besson, one of the most prestigious galleries for ceramic art in the UK, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Seattle Asian Art Museum in the US. In addition, his works have been acquired by eminent museums. Today, his international reputation is firmly established with his works in the permanent collections at numerous and world-leading art institutions, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, and Art Institute of Chicago.

As a contemporary ceramist, Yoon’s artistic career is highly regarded for his modernization of the traditions of Korean ceramic art in an independent manner. This is distinguished from the modern and contemporary fine art in Korea that was modernized under the influence of Japan in the early twentieth century and then through the influence of European countries in its middle decades. Over this process of modernization, Korean art had exhibited a tendency to lose its identity. However, Yoon inherited the style and spirit of buncheong ware and modernized it successfully by obtaining both a specific Korean identity and global universality inherent or visible in the world of pottery.

His relationship with buncheong began after he accidentally encountered the Japanese book series Mishima (the Japanese term for buncheong ware), quite the coup aesthetically and intellectually when he was studying at the Department of Crafts at Hongik University. He was instantly fascinated by the unconventional and modern sensibility of buncheong ware, and began studying its visual qualities and production methods and the required skills with support and under the guidance from Choi Sunu, the former director of the National Museum of Korea.

From his debut in the late 1970s to the 1980s, Yoon’s early works relied on a potter’s wheel to create round form pottery, while also experimenting with a plethora of production techniques, often quickly discarded or ruled unfunctional in his creative process, all a means to reconfigure and contemporize more traditional buncheong ware. In the 1990s, Yoon began creating his own style of works by the end of the decade he displayed and showed a modern sensibility in his ceramic practice. Instead of being thrown on a wheel, they were built into oval or triangular forms by joining two or three hand-built slabs, fusing them together for formal and spatial reasons. He then coated their surface with slip and made drawings of images or impressions from nature using his fingers or items found around him such as bits of straw, a bamboo knife, or a nail. Since Yoon did not use a potter’s wheel, his works had a rather coarse surface, but the traces of his fingers on the hand-built works represented a modern aesthetic and maximized the traditional authentic beauty of more candid buncheong ware of the past, made and re-envisioned for the present.

In 1979 Yoon made up his mind to become a full-time artist and moved to Gwangju in Gyeonggi-do Province. He built a studio and house and lived there until he moved to the slopes of Dodeoksan Mountain in the town of Angang in Gyeongju in 1994. He has been living there ever since, working all alone without an assistant. Angang is located deep in the mountains and is known for its particularly strong winds, earning the nickname “windy valley.” His works have been influenced by this environment—they represent natural winds and landscapes, as well as the changes in the four seasons that he can feel in the environment. In these surroundings, the series Windy Valley and Diary from a Mountain were produced. Living deep in the mountains, his works reflect the natural surroundings and bucolic vistas he walked and viewed daily. He once said, “My works seem to be brought up out of nature and have remained so.” He wanted to create works that are warm and comfortable like being cradled in a mother’s arms.

Since 2004, Yoon has been working on the series Chaos, which reflects the tumultuous social conditions of the times. He expressed powerful energy through rapid brushwork, dripping, and spraying slip, all of which recall Jackson Pollock’s action painting/drip style. Since 2016, he began creating a new series called Mountain Movement that reflects an extraordinary experience he had of perceiving mountains in motion. In order to depict moving mountains in a more dramatic manner, he presents the exuberant vitality of nature by adopting asymmetrical balance and aesthetics, a state in which an inclining vessel perilously stands at the edge of collapse.

This research aims to identify the roots and identity of Yoon’s ceramic art as briefly described above. The first section examines the historical background of buncheong ware, which flourished in the early centuries of the Joseon Dynasty. The second section explores the relationship between buncheong and contemporary art in order to discuss its modern value. The third section investigates the ways in which Yoon carried on the tradition and how he developed and harmonized it with modern sensibilities. In doing so, this section discusses how to contextualize his art and its aesthetics within the field of contemporary art. Lastly, the fourth section examines the international reception of his work through the response of foreign critics, and also discusses how his works reflect a global universality.

Through these investigations, this research illuminates the uniquely Korean aesthetics of buncheong ware and examines how Yoon’s ceramic art successfully inherited and then redeveloped this tradition for a contemporary public of art connoisseurs. Yoon’s case is considered a prototype for achieving modernity based on tradition. In order to do this, one must not simply imitate the styles but take in the spirit and aesthetics of tradition, which was the case with Yoon Kwang-Cho as he achieved an unrestricted transformation of a traditional methodology and style.

1. Historical Background and Features of Buncheong Ware

Buncheong ware is a type of ceramics that is marked by a white slip that is applied over a dark gray body and then glazed on top to prevent the slip from peeling. The technique of applying the slip is found not only in Korea, but also in China, Persia, India, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and elsewhere all over the world. In particular, Korean buncheongware seems to be related to a local Cizhou ware produced in China during the Northern Song Dynasty, but their relations have not been clearly identified. What is clear about buncheong is that it allows numerous forms of expression, presents a modern sensibility, and holds a unique position in the history of ceramic art worldwide.

Buncheong ware emerged at the beginning of the fifteenth century—a turbulent period when the Goryeo Dynasty had come to an end and the succeeding Joseon Dynasty was recently founded. During such periods of chaos, the political ideology that dominated this the feudal society had collapsed and the oppressed culture of the common people would eventual blossom. As the political ideology of a kingdom tends to suppress traditional culture and the ingenuous aesthetics of the people, folk culture flourishes when the ruling class withers. In the context of Korea, this can be observed in buncheong ware, which emerged in the fifteenth century when the sovereign power was in flux. It can also be seen in diverse genres of folk arts, such as masked dance (talchum), pansori (epic chant), genre painting, folk painting, and saseol sijo (a long narrative form of traditional three-verse poem), which thrived in the eighteenth century when the common people’s social position was elevated.

The thought collective during  the Goryeo Dynasty was grounded in Buddhism, which had been introduced from China, but the succeeding Joseon Dynasty attempted to build a new nation founded on Confucianism and oust the old, corrosive power structure. While Buddhism focused on oneworldededness and meditation, Confucianism emphasized propriety and hierarchical gendered order. This new ideology tended to suppress the Korean people who were carefree and enjoyed music and arts in earlier periods. As this ideology weakened at the time of turmoil between the two dynasties, the naive and candid nature of the populace came to be revealed.

Some scholars consider a deterioration of celadon production skills to be the main reason for the emergence of buncheong ware. However, it is more likely that its development was inevitable as it incorporated the new spirit of the time and showed an avant-garde attitude against Goryeo celadon. Celadon had first been produced in Goryeo around the tenth-century under the influence of Chinese styled Yuezho ware. Considering that European countries only began production of hard-paste porcelain in the eighteenth century, Korea and China can be considered the most artistically advanced countries in the world at the time in terms of innovation in ceramic practices. Goryeo celadon was famed for its clear jade color. It was highly esteemed and praised even in China, as indicated by a quote from a Chinese envoy — “the luminous jade-green color of Goryeo celadon is the best under heaven.” The aesthetics of Goryeo celadon is deeply related with Buddhism and its longings for an  otherworldly nirvana. Goryeo celadon was highly sought after by the royal family and aristocracy in Asia and thus reflected the tastes of the ruling class who protected the nation and obtained their personal well-being and happiness through Buddhism. However, with the fall of the Goryeo Dynasty, Buddhism was criticized as an unrealistic worldview and was condemned for misguiding people about humanity and the world, and having led to the erosion of justice and morality. The succeeding Joseon Dynasty attempted to build a new order according to Confucian principles that was rooted in reality.

   When the Goryeo Dynasty collapsed, the official court kilns were shut down and the court potters were dispersed across the nation to make functional wares for everyday life at local kilns. Accordingly, ceramics no longer came to reflect the taste of aristocrats but became more egalitarian in nature and purpose, also displacing those who were devout Buddhists and transforming their social status back to common people. This is the historical background in which the simple and ingenuous buncheong ware appeared as a break from the schematized style of celadon.

In the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century, coarse buncheong ware was produced in the style of inlaid celadon, but as the stamping technique was employed for decoration, its quality was elevated and buncheong came to be used at the royal court and government offices. In the late fifteenth century, when refined Chinese white porcelain was introduced to the Joseon court, they soon developed preference for the clear and flawless surface of white porcelain over the somber buncheong ware. The Joseon court established official kilns in Gwangju, Gyeonggi- do Province to manufacture white porcelain for use in the royal court. Buncheong ware was still produced at local kilns to meet the demands of the commoners.

   Once buncheong began serving the needs of the common people rather than the ruling elite, its style became simpler and more free-wheeling and it was decorated in a more unrestricted and bolder manner. It was also around the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that new decoration methods were employed for adorning buncheong ware, three stand out as aesthetic features:   incising via theengraving designs on the surface with sharp tools, sgraffito as ascraping off the slip-coated background for designs, and painting with iron underglaze. In the late fifteenth century, buncheong ware was decorated to look more like white porcelain. It was covered in white slip using a special brush made of straw or pig hair (gwiyal in Korean) or by dipping pots in white slips. The former was rendered in a single brisk stroke recalling expressionist painting. Buncheong enjoyed a heyday during the reign of King Sejong (r. 1418–1450), but had disappeared by the end of the sixteenth century when hundreds of potters were abducted to Japan during the Japanese Invasions of Korea (1592–1598).

   In China and Japan, the qualities of ceramics produced in official kilns and in local kilns differed greatly, but there was hardly any difference between those in Joseon. A Japanese art critic, Yanagi Muneyoshi (柳宗悅, 1889–1961) explained that this was because the clay and glaze as well as the structure of the kilns and the firing methods did not differ between the two types of kilns in Korea. Also, he added that the Korean ceramics emphasized its function, thus eliminating any excessive decorations. Joseon’s official court kilns did not conduct ill practice, and he viewed this fact as an exceptional case in the global history of ceramic art.[1]

   In the early phase of buncheong, the clay body had a high iron content and other impurities, yielding a dark gray color. It eventually came to be made with more refined clay, and the body became gray-blue in appearance. Buncheong was made with less refined clay than celadon which was mixed with different clays, and its body was less hard than that of celadon. The high iron content made the body darker in color than traditional celadon. A clear glaze made with a mixture of from pine and persimmon woods ash, rice straw ash, feldspar and a small amount of iron was used. It was fired to between 1,100 and 1,150 ℃, which is a temperature 100 to 150℃ lower than typical celadon and created a soft and warm atmosphere.

   Buncheong ware was easier to fire than celadon. While Japanese and Chinese ceramics were mainly fired in oxidation, Korean ceramics were mostly fired in a reduction atmosphere. Unlike the roaring dark oxidizing flame, a reduced flame with low oxygen has a rather calm blue color. Most Ming porcelain appears clear, solid, and sharp-edged, a look produced by high-firing in an oxidizing atmosphere. On the other hand, buncheong ware was fired in a neutralizing condition.

   Produced in a less combustible condition, buncheong presents a rather simple and gentle appearance quite different from more elaborately and colorfully decorated Chinese and Japanese counterparts. Buncheong is also marked by its candid and un-schematized nature as there are fewer restrictions in selecting the materials and firing methods compared to celadon or white porcelain. More importantly,  since the firing technique could be adjusted according to the desired expression …. Another aspect of its character is its modernist sensibility exposing the materiality of the clay and allowing bold decoration. This is quite different from celadon, the beauty of which is created by concealing the clay body with a jade-colored glaze. Compared to sophisticated and ornate celadon and refined and abstinent white porcelain, buncheongreflects a modernist aesthetic through its open, candid, and naïve decorations.

   Buncheong is a name given by the eminent art historian Go Yuseop (1905–1944) that translates as “gray-green ceramics decorated with powder.” When it was in use during the Joseon period, it did not actually have a particular name. In Japan, this type of ceramics coated with white slip with a brisk stroke of brush was called mishima (三島) or mishimade ware (三島手). It is uncertain how the name mishima `was given, but there are a number of theories related to the origin. In the nineteenth century, Yi Gyu-gyeong (1788-?) wrote in his book Oju yeonmun jangjeon sango (五洲衍文長箋散稿, Collection of Yi Gyu-gyeong’s Writings on Various Topics) that “Goryeo tea bowls are the best among all kinds. The one called “mishimade” is hard. This name was given for its elaborate decoration resembling the Mishima calendar published by the Grand Shrine of Mishima.” Yanagi Muneyoshi also stated in a book that [buncheong] was called rekide (曆手) because its inlaid decoration resembled the letters written on the calendar called “Mishima reki”.(2)[2] There is another theory that the name derived from the islands referred to as Mishima in Japanese, known in Korean as Geojedo Island and the nearby islets in the Korea Straight, and ceramics were shipped to Japan via these Mishima Islands.

   Mishima was a Japanese name, so a proper name was required for it in Korea. The Korean art historian Go Yuseop (1905–1944, penname: Wuhyeon) suggested the term “bunjang heocheong sagi” instead of mishima in his paper “Goryeo Celadon and Joseon Porcelain” published in the magazine Jogwang (朝光, The Light of Morning) in 1941(3)[3], and it came to be called buncheong sagi for short. Once given its own distinct name, buncheong gained an identity of its own as well rather than simply being considered a transitional ware between Goryeo celadon and Joseon white porcelain.

   Choi Sunu, who was Go’s student and a former director of the National Museum of Korea, once related that “Buncheong is characterized by bold exaggeration, bold simplification, and bold distortion, all of which are connected to modern art.” He also noted that buncheong presents “abstract beauty producing limitless interpretations,” which made its modern interpretations possible.(4)[4] Many studies have been conducted on buncheong ware, but they mostly focus on its style and techniques. Therefore, this research will investigate the relation of buncheong with Zen Buddhism from an aesthetic perspective, and as well as its association with modern expressionist aesthetics.

2. Buncheong Ware: Its Aesthetics and Relationship with Contemporary Art

A. The Relationship between Buncheong and Zen Buddhism

While the sculptural celadon, or sanghyeong celadon, are vessels that are sculpted in the form of people, animal, and plants from nature and are figurative and sculptural aesthetically, the coarse and artless buncheong ware exhibits looked abstract and painterly in its characteristics, pedestrian would be one way to describe them visually. The shift from celadon to buncheong does not indicate a technical regression, but in fact it should be regarded as a product of a new aesthetic that reflects the nature of the common people and communal demand for functional pottery for everyday use. In this regard, buncheong ware is deeply related aesthetically to Zen Buddhism, which seeks emancipation through the innate nature of human beings rather than artificiality.

   Distinct from the doctrinal (gyo) school of Buddhism according to which Buddhahood is attained by studying and understanding Buddhist scriptures, the Zen or Seon (meditation) school of Buddhism emphasizes perceiving one’s true nature through meditation and discourse on meditative topics. Accordingly, Zen practice is aimed at voiding all unnecessary attachment and delusions and realize one’s own Buddha-nature, unlike the practice of pursuing Buddhist truth by absorbing pedantic knowledge in the doctrinal school of Buddhism. Zen Buddhism was introduced to Korea during the Silla Dynasty and became popular among both the local gentry and the common people. During the Goryeo Dynasty, when the military regime of theChoe clan came to power, Zen was favored by military officials who rejected pedantic knowledge. The clan leader Choe Chung-heon reformed the Buddhist community in an effort to eliminate the former authorities that espoused the doctrinal school of Buddhism and instead elevate Zen Buddhism. Later, the Jogye Order established by Jinul (1158–1210) integrated the doctrinal school of Buddhism into Zen Buddhism with the aim of rooting out corruption from the Buddhist community. Buncheong ware, which began to be produced in the late Goryeo Dynasty, seems to be not unrelated to the spread of Zen Buddhism.

   Zen aims to achieve enlightenment in a direct and simple manner without going through complicated steps of other ascetic practices. It is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, which underscores that all sentient beings can become Buddhas. Differing from schools of Hīnayāna Buddhism, which yearn for an afterlife, the Zen school of Mahāyāna Buddhism regards daily labor as one of its ascetic practices. Thus, people became easily imbued with this life-centered Buddhism. While the doctrinal school of Buddhism that focuses on rigid formalities corresponds to sophisticated celadon, the aesthetics of buncheong ware more closely connect to Zen, which is unbound to formalities and values freedom.

   Zen aims to achieve enlightenment through a direct and simple manner without going through complicated steps of ascetic practices. It is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, which underscores that all sentient beings can become Buddhas. Differing from schools of Hīnayāna Buddhism, which yearn for an afterlife, the Zen school of Mahāyāna Buddhism regards daily labor as one of its ascetic practices. Thus, people became easily imbued with this life-centered Buddhism. While the doctrinal school of Buddhism that focuses on rigid formalities corresponds to sophisticated celadon, the aesthetics of buncheong ware more closely connect to Zen, which is unbound to formalities and values freedom.

   The buncheong aesthetic reflects the essence of Zen Buddhism that pursues the state of “no mind” and refrains from technical skills and seeks unbounded freedom. Zen and buncheong ware seem to share the same ideals as Zen is a transformed version of Buddhism better suiting the Korean tendency to be intuitive rather than rational. Buncheong ware is an embodiment of the nature of common people who are not imbued with ideology. In a sense, the aesthetic of buncheong ware can be thought of as avant-garde, breaking away from existing formalities and conventions. Unlike sensational and destructive Western avant-garde art, however, buncheong ware inherits the original spirit of Eastern aesthetics emphasizing the cultivation of the self by restoring human nature.

   B. The Relationship between Buncheong Ware and Modern Expressionism

Emerging in the twentieth century as one of the main thrusts of Western art, Expressionism rejected figurative representation and instead focused on the artist’s subjective emotions and materiality. In traditional art, materials (or media) were considered simply a tool to present an illusion of real life. Modern art, however, tended to emphasize the features of materials. In a similar context, the American modern art critic Clement Greenberg said, “The history of avant- garde paintings is that of a progressive surrender to the resistance of its medium”

   Buncheong ware reveals the materiality of clay more than many other types of ceramics and its firing method is uncomplicated. In addition, the flexible adjustment of the firing allows a greater opportunity for chance. The candor and bold decorations of buncheong parallel modern Expressionism. In particular, the improvised patterns, which are distinct from concrete schemes, look much like the drawings found in expressionist paintings.

   This type of expression can be brought forth from the innocent and unselfconscious minds of children. Children’s paintings, which are based on their feelings and imagination, do not appear skillful, but more candid, naive and full of vitality. This state of mind is sought by many artists who wish to express their individual personality freed from traditional schema. Matisse once said, “Look at life with the eyes of a child,” and Picasso commented, “Every child is an artist. It took a lifetime to paint like a child.” Regarding the ultimate goal of art, Paul Klee once said that he would like to reach the primitive state like that of a new-born baby.

   Benedetto Croce (1866–1952), an Italian aesthetician who advocated aesthetic Expressionism, said “Art is an action of awareness brought by intuition, and the intuition should be expressed.” The British philosopher Robin George Collingwood (1889–1943) related, “Artists should express only the emotion that comes from one’s own experience.” Likewise, in order to express inner emotions more intuitively, one should focus on one’s mind rather than one’s eyes. In order to express a continuously changing mind, improvisation is unavoidable. The expressionist painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) defined improvisation as “a certain process of situations that suddenly happen in the unconscious world,” which awakens the spirit and touches the mind. It reflects something through the “inner inevitability” of the mind rather than the eyes.

   As discussed above, an expressionist aesthetic is observed in the fifteenth-century buncheong ware, but not until the twentieth century in Western art. Crossing the boundaries between the figurative and the abstract, the lines unintentionally rendered the small-scale buncheong ware are valuable enough to interpret them as expressionist aesthetics. In particular, the swift and brisk strokes of a gwiyal brush on the crude surface of buncheong recalls the bold brushstrokes of expressionist paintings. The free and improvisational lines executed by incising and iron underglaze painting appear like a modern artists’ graffiti works. In addition, buncheong ware adorned with countless stamped designs of a pattern resembles contemporary abstract painting.

   Freed from political ideology, buncheong potters produced vessels without precognition. These potters decorated their vessels with spontaneous designs like the automatic drawings of contemporary artists who cross the borders between drawing and being drawn. This aesthetic of the common people can also be observed in other genre of the Joseon Dynasty, such as folk paintings.

   The paintings by Kim Whanki, one of the most prominent figures in Korean modern art, were also influenced by Korean ceramics. He sought an ideal aesthetic in Korean ceramics— simple and delicate, a sense of silent movement, and a feeling of warmth drawn from cold earth—and sublimated this feeling into his paintings. His Dot series of paintings, which were produced in New York City during the 1970s, expresses his nostalgia for his birthplace by presenting endless dots in a small square. This painting style is comparable with the repeated stamped designs on buncheong. Kim’s paintings and buncheong ware are comparable in terms of both style and their expression of the silent resonance of human nature.

   The abstract expression observed in buncheong ware and modernist art in Korea is different from Western Expressionism, which gave voice to the socially repressed minds of artists. Instead, expressionist as pursued in Korea shows the heart of Korean people, who breathe with nature and endeavor to harmonize with nature by giving themselves over to nature’s tones and rhythms.

3. The Features and Aesthetics of Yoon’s Ceramics

A. Harmony between Practicality and Autonomy

Under the influence of American expressionism, contemporary ceramics lost its functional nature and was transformed into ceramic sculpture to enter the category of fine art. Fundamentally, ceramics began competing with traditional sculpture by giving up its practical aspects as a craft and instead focusing on the materiality of clay. By doing so, ceramics was able to enter modernity but lost its original identity as items for practical use. The general flow of contemporary art has been toward a pursuit of autonomy for art and an abstracted expression distanced from reality. However, Western expressionist ceramics defined the autonomy of ceramics only through the materiality of earth while abandoning the original nature of ceramics for human use.

   Yoon maintained his distance from the stream of contemporary ceramics that transformed into ceramic sculpture. He kept the hollow interior of his works so as not to lose the original identity of ceramics as a container. Such a practice was his way of actualizing his thoughts [on craft] as he stated “use and beauty must be harmoniously united, and it is impossible to think of use without beauty, and beauty without use.”

   At the end of the 1980s, modernity was an issue across the field of art, and Yoon faced a dilemma. He pondered how to modernize buncheong and decided to abandon the potter’s wheel and experiment with various plastic forms. In line with this, he tried using plaster molds. His experiments with casting made his works appear more like ceramic sculptures that reflect modernism. The closed forms of his cast works without any opening eliminated the unique functional feature of ceramics. Without an opening or hollow interior, his closed forms felt heavy and seemed stifling. In order to resolve this, he built oval-shaped vessels by joining two hand-built slabs with an opening at the top.

   This method made it possible for him to produce a triangular prism or hexahedral form by joining three or four slabs, establishing a unique style for Yoon. His works did not have a particular function in the sense of traditional ceramics, but their hollow interiors still provided a receptacle to contain something suitable. Although these vessels did not serve as actual containers, they created the psychological effect that they could hold something within, which distinguished them from sculpture and identified them as craftworks.

   By straddling these borders, Yoon avoided the trap of “art for art’s sake” pursued by Western modernists and was not submerged in the idea of “art for life” pursed by traditional crafters. He did not veer to one side and instead followed a moderate course between autonomous art and practical craft. Through this methodology, Yoon harmonized the practical with the artistic and the traditional with the modern without sacrificing any element. This is an important achievement that demonstrates an avenue for modernizing traditional ceramics.

   B. The “Natural Expressionism” of a Modern Sensibility

The major feature of Yoon’s ceramic works that emerged after the 1990s is building vessels from hand-built slabs or by coiling without using a potter’s wheel. A pottery wheel is ideal for making vessels with a round form, and abandoning the wheel meant giving up skilled techniques but allowing new forms to be created at the same time. Yoon’s hand-built vessels appear distinct from conventional wares, and they possess wide crude surfaces with visible traces of his hands. He decorated them by applying slip and rendered patterns with his fingers or with items found nearby, such as bits of straw, a bamboo knife, or a nail. The designs were usually natural images that he saw and appreciated in his daily life, such as mountains, rivers, the moon, wind, or waves. His hand-built works contained coarse surfaces, but the traces of his hands maximized the candid aesthetics of buncheong ware and its legacy.

   Expressionistic features are certainly found in the traditional buncheong ware of the Joseon period. However, Yoon’s works display these expressionist features to an even greater degree since he did not use the wheel to create pottery. While Western expressionism focuses on presenting the subjective emotions of human beings repressed in normal life, Yoon’s loose expression was the end product of his experiences—the result of feeling the constantly changing energy of nature with his body and combining the rhythms of nature with his personal sentiments. So one could say that the Western expressionism is a human-centered expression representing people’s subjective emotions, whereas Yoon’s expressionism originates from his unity with nature.

   Although human emotions and natural vitality are both types of energy, they are different in their quality. The energy of human emotions is raw. It is an unpurified energy stemming from repression in life that is piled up in the unconscious. This is the very reason why Western Expressionism ended up representing a strong expression of emotion. This connects to the ideas of Sigmund Freud that one of the functions of art is to serve as mental therapy by releasing the repressed unconsciousness.

   However, the energy of nature is not a spoilt energy trapped within the unconscious, but a pure one overflowing with a vital rhythm and soft rhythmic waves. Yoon does not spurt out his emotions as in Western expressionism. Instead, he tries to void his mind to communicate with the energy of nature. This is an act closer to meditation than a therapeutic action like Western expressionism. As such, it seems appropriate to call such meditative action a “natural expressionism” in order to distinguish it from Western expressionism.

   Indeed, “natural expressionism” is one of the modernist features of Yoon’s ceramics and reflects the traditional nature-friendly worldview of Koreans. Early Western classical art regarded nature as incomplete and pursed the golden ratio and a calculated composition for its structures based on human rationality. This tradition of finding beauty in artificially refined things rather than from natural states is not much different in other Asian countries, including 

China and Japan. However, it is unique that Koreans found aesthetic pleasure in a natural state and sought the plain and natural beauty promoted in Laozi’s quote “Great technique seems to be clumsy”. The artless natural character is observed not only ceramics, but across the range of art in Korea, and it carries the simple and innocent aesthetic of Koreans.

   Nature and humanity is not a dichotomy—they communicate and resonate with each other in a friendly way to produce works of art. This is the key point for understanding the “natural expressionism” of Korean uniqueness. In the perspective of Westerners, whose ideas are based on scientific materialism, nature is a visible and empirical product. Koreans instead regard nature as the origin of life, which continuously changes and circulates. Therefore, naturalism (in which the object is centered) and expressionism (in which the subject is centered) are not clearly distinguished in Korean art. This is because Koreans pursue the idea of the subject and the object united as one, as in the idea of “天人妙合” in which heaven and the human world are united.

   C. Plain Beauty—“Great Technique Seems to Be Clumsy”

For Yoon Kwang-Cho, art is like a meditation in which he interacts with the nature that he encounters every day in the mountains and purges his obsessions and greed. He once commented, “[I] could go onto the path of creation only with an empty and pure mind that can accept and let go of everything and anything.” An empty and clean mind in this context means an original state of mind without any attachments. This state can be achieved by emptying the mind rather than filling it with knowledge. The simple and artless beauty that comes from a clean state of mind free from any habits of the mind is indeed the ultimate goal that he wishes to reach through art.

   Simple and artless means an original and unpretentious state without artificial human intervention. We can be free in this state. When ceramics is in its raw material state (that is, clay), it can be made into anything. Once it is made into a vessel with a special purpose, users are restricted in using it freely. Likewise, once a mind is attached to a specific idea, we are no longer free from this fixed mindset, orientation or ideation. Thus, for Yoon, the constant changes of nature helps himto soften his fixed or habitual ideas—this is comparable with the way in which he kneads clay. So, plain or artless means a free state in which anything can be created.

   Nature appears to be incomplete and clumsy from the view point of human beings, who try to fix it using sophisticated techniques. However, nature is not finite, but infinite since it changes ceaselessly. Laozi said that “Great technique seems to be clumsy” (大巧若拙). This phrase means that sophisticated skills are finite because they have attachments [to worldly things], but the nature that appears clumsy is infinite since it is without attachments. Also, Zhuang Shou asserted that the supreme beauty that humans should pursue is being simple and artless when he said “There is no greater beauty than plainness.”

   In art, people’s advanced artistic skills do not deliver a sincere state of mind and, as a result, fall into an ugliness fettered by conventions. Nature does not have include skills and is always renewed, so it does not distinguish beauty from ugliness. That is to say, there is no ugliness contrasting with beauty in nature.

   Yanagi Muneyoshi defined this idea as the “art of artless.” In other words, it is an acquired skill to be like nature. This is far more difficult and a higher level to achieve than artificial skills. Yoon’s ceramic works do not rely on artificial techniques or patterns and instead absorbed the vital energy of ever-changing nature and excreted it, the process of which allowed him to be able to represent artless beauty. This kind of representation of embodied beauty has a long tradition in Asia. In fact, traditional literary paintings pursued representations of the spirit of a subject rather its realistic facade. This signifies that literary paintings are not a representation of nature captured by the eyes, but a representation of nature engraved in the mind, which is summed up as the “mind landscape” (胸中丘壑). Yoon did not wish to control nature through his skills. His artistic goal was to collaborate with nature and create a third outcome which is ….

   People who do not understand the artless beauty of Korea sometimes regard the unfinished appearance of Korean art to be due to a lack of skill or technique. However, it is important to understand that it is not a failure of craft but “the art of the artless” and the simplicity of intact nature. When building a house, Koreans focus on finding a site that can harmonize with nature in accordance with pungsu (fengshui) geomancy more than the structure itself. When cooking, Koreans minimize the use of artificial flavors and use fermented seasonings to bring nature to the table. Indeed, ceramic works cannot be created with only the will and skill of potters. They demand potters’ delicate senses, patience, and knowledge of the materials. The encounter of these attributes of ceramics with the simple and artless attitudes of Koreans created the unique ceramics of Korea which are continued in Yoon Kwang-Cho’s contemporary ceramic art.

D. International Universality in Yoon Kwang-Cho’s Works

As discussed so far in this optic, Yoon’s ceramic works represent a plain and artless beauty that is considered uniquely Korean. However, could this aesthetic gain international accolades and speak to world art concerns found across the planet? Research on his work has not yet been extensively conducted internationally by art historians or cultural studies scholars, but we can find an perspective toward a universal notion in reviews by foreign critics of Yoon’s exhibitions overseas.

   When Yoon was invited to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2003, Edward J. Sozanski wrote a review in The Philadelphia Inquirer as follows. “Gaudiness and intricacy have become so prevalent in contemporary ceramic arts that the elegantly restrained and elemental pots created by Korean artist Yoon Kwang-Cho all but shock the senses.” Western contemporary ceramics, which has been deeply influenced by abstract expressionism, attempted to shake free of preexisting styles by expressing the passionate inner self through exaggerated gestures, abandoning practical functionality. Sozanski thought that Yoon’s works were a breath of fresh air to people who were optically inundated with florid skills and shocks based on postmodern commodities.

   When Yoon held a solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum in 2005, Patrick Coolican wrote in The Seattle Times that “Yoon is not creating his art, he is living in its very creation. Moreover, as his creation has been a process of religious discovery, it’s also been a process of collective aesthetic recovery for Korea, as Yoon has helped rehabilitate an ancient ceramic sculptural technique that was once lost.” When Coolican precisely described Yoon’s work as “a process of religious discovery,” he saw that Yoon is not simply an artist who emphasizes technical skills when creating art, but a practitioner who detached himself from worldly desires in nature when creating something beyond art and beyond material attachments.

   Burt Wasserman wrote in Art Views, “By utilizing these various procedures, Yoon avoids the creation of slick ceramic chic. Instead, he offers the connoisseur artworks alive with a rich and solid sense of earthy substance and profound mythical reflection.” Wasserman focused on the natural expressions of Yoon, which avoid artificial sophistication. Further, what he meant by “profound mythycal reflection” would be making viewers stop making conscious decisions and become detached. Wasserman also analyzed Yoon’s work as follows: “There is something inside the human makeup that wants to reach for the stars. Some might say this is an arrogant expectation. No matter! For those who are ready to respond vigorously to what Yoon offers, the artworks make the fulfillment of the desire an eminently tangible possibility.”

   In this context, the phrase “there is something inside the human makeup that wants to reach for the stars” signifies that there is the feeling of romantic transcendence [in Yoon’s work]. We can experience such a feeling when we are drunk or in the throes of ecstatic visions. If such a feeling could be triggered by a work of art when sober, it would be the best possible praise for the work. Transcendence does not mean abandonment to Yoon. It means to reach at selflessness—forgetting the ego—in daily life. This can be achieved by absorbing and resonating with nature through all the senses. In this state, sanctity and mundanity are the same—transcending daily life through daily life.

   As discussed above, Yoon’s artistic world is religious and similar to an ascetic practice. Thefact that his art is thoroughly understood in the eyes of Western people with different sentiments means that Yoon’s works have gained an international universality. In fact, his art is recognized more widely overseas than in Korea. Eminent international museums have purchased Yoon’s works, which is further evidence that his art has gained universality. Yoon’s works are now in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (US), Metropolitan Museum of Art (US), San Francisco Museum of Art (US), Seattle Art Museum (US), Art Institute of Chicago (US), Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History (US), British Museum (UK), National Gallery of Victoria (Australia), Museum of Contemporary Art in Australia (Australia), and Royal Marimon Museum (Belgium).

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