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Choi Man-Lin최만린

1935-10-03 ~ 2020-11-17

#Sculpture

Choi Man-Lin

Artist Artworks Exhibition Explanatory notes

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Introduce

Choi Man Lin (1935-2020) is one of Korea’s foremost sculptors, whose illustrious career saw him reach beyond Western classical sculpture to pioneer abstract sculpture in his country. He studied Sculpture at the Seoul National University College of Fine Arts, where he went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA). In 1969, he joined the faculty of the Department of Sculpture at the Seoul National University College of Fine Arts, where he continued to teach for the next 35 years. For two years, between 1997 and 1999, he headed the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. His list of awards includes the Kim Se-Choong Sculpture Award (1991), the Environment Culture Award of Korea (1994 and 1997), the 2001 Aquamarine Stripes Order of Service Merit (2001), and the Eungwan Order of Cultural Merit (2014). His works have been shown at the National Art Exhibition (1949–1960) and international exhibitions, including the 4th and 5th Paris Biennale (1965–1966) and the 10th São Paulo Art Biennial (1969). After his first solo exhibition in 1973 at Shinsegae Gallery, Choi held his seventh solo and first retrospective exhibition in 2001 at the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. In 2011, an exhibition of his drawings took place at the Moran Museum of Art (Choi Man Lin’s Drawings). In 2014, his 15th solo and second retrospective exhibition was held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, featuring a comprehensive selection of works from 4 decades of his career.

Choi’s career began with sculptural reflections on humans and life, as exemplified by the Eve series (1958–1960). During the 1960s, through several series such as Sun and Moon, Sky and Earth, and Grace, which grew out of a search for the identity of Korean sculpture, he explored his own plastic language. These works are widely considered to have opened new vistas for Korean abstract sculpture. In Placenta (1975–1987), one of his two most acclaimed series along with Eve, the theme “life” leaves the abstract realm of the order of nature or the law of the universe to take on a concrete form. Now off its metaphysical pedestal, life is imagined and visualized in its human significance and dimensions. His interest in the fundamental aspects of life, which unfolded through Placenta, Vein, and Dot, was increasingly accompanied by a desire to move beyond the domain of concepts, even as its universal significance is kept in sight. This culminated in 1987 with the Dot series, which is ongoing to this day. In the Dot series, the artist’s intent is given the most reductive expression out of all his series. Choi eliminates all unnecessary explanations and unessential details. His art, arising from an Eastern worldview, has been a journey toward an aesthetic of plasticity that is uniquely Korean. He attempts to retrace a path back to native plastic aesthetics by looking beyond an object and contemplating the underlying meaning. Such an exercise could be equated with the act of visualizing the vitality that naturally resides within an artist or in the depths of life in a richly condensed form. Beyond creating a shape, Choi’s sculptures are about mirroring the essence of things and lovingly harking back to Korean aesthetic roots.

History

1935    Born in Seoul
1949    Selection of his Face for the 1st National Exhibition of Art
1957    “Special Selection” at the National Art Exhibition for his Mother and Son
1962    MFA from Seoul National University
1965    Participation in the Paris Biennale
1969    Professor of sculpture at the Seoul National University College of Fine Arts
1991    Kim Se-Choong Sculpture Award
1992    Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University
1997    Director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
          Environment Culture Award of Korea
2001    Aquamarine Stripes Order of Service Merit
          Choi Man Lin: A Retrospective, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul
2014    A Korean Contemporary Artist: Choi Man Lin, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
Eungwan Order of Cultural Merit

2020 Death

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2020 Death

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Explanatory notes

Foreword and Preambles

1. Choi Man Lin’s body of work comprises 1,225 pieces, of which 534 are sculptures and 691 drawings. Forty-five of his sculptures are environmental sculptures. His drawings include three oil works on paper.

2. Drawings: The drawings are self-contained, independent works of art and not preparatory sketches or plans for sculptures. For this reason, they were classified as “works” rather than “biographic source materials.”

3. Titles: A standard format is used to list the titles of works: “title of the series - year – order of creation.”

For example, in the case of Sun and Moon, an early series, dating from 1970, the title is denoted “Irwol 70-1 (1970-3D-2).”

His series of works include Sun and Moon, Sky and Earth, Grace, Placenta, Dot, Vein, and O. Unlike most of Choi Man Lin’s works, figurative works from the early years and those belonging to the “Sky, Earth, Black, and Yellow” series have individual titles.

4. Production: His works were produced in two stages: creation of a clay or plaster model, followed by bronze-casting. The date on which the first edition was cast, using the final materials, is considered the date of completion. About 209 sculptures of Choi Man Lin have more than one edition. Two to three editions were cast for each of them – except 0-96-7 (1996-3D-10) and 0-06-2 (2006-3D-2) – including those produced as trophies – e.g., 0-03-7 (2003-3D-6) –. The different editions are numbered 0–2. Edition 0 is the one in the artist’s personal collection.

5. Location/ownership: Choi Man Lin’s works are currently in the permanent collections of various museums as well as private collections of many individuals. For privately-owned works, their status is only indicated as “private collection” without providing the names of their owners, partly due to the difficulty of tracing all successive owners of a work after the initial sale, and partly to protect the privacy of concerned individuals.

6. Photographs: The vast majority of Choi Man Lin’s works and outdoor sculptures were re-photographed. For works that were lost or destroyed, photographs from the artist’s own archives were used. As for sculptures in public spaces, visits were made to their respective locations to document their current status (for example, in the case of Placenta 86-7, an outdoor sculpture that went missing after the relocation of Korea Electric Power Corporation, its original image is provided along with information about its current status).

7. Biographical Source Materials: 19 sculptures commissioned by public organizations, various foundations, and associations have been included as biographical source materials. Meanwhile, photographs of his family members were used in the artist’s videos and included in his timeline. As much of the biographic source materials are from an undetermined date, simple numbers were used to classify them instead of serial numbers (e.g., “Biographic source material 70”).

8. All works of Choi Man Lin have been documented as exhaustively and accurately as currently possible.

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