Looking at the work of Kim Chong-young, a pioneer of Korean abstract sculpture…
“We don’t really try to hear what the artist or the farmer has to say.
It is enough to taste the fruits of their harvest.
Their harvest gives human beings the joy and hope of living.
Diligent work and honesty are the virtues of the artist and the farmer.”
These are words from Kim Chong-young, often called the pioneer of modern Korean sculpture. Born in 1915, he retired in 1980 from a professorship at Seoul National University’s College of Fine Arts with the intent of devoting himself solely to his practice, but tragically passed away from stomach cancer in 1982.
He is known as the first in Korea to create modern abstract sculpture. His most representative work is “Bird,” made of wood before 1953. Before sculpting a bird, he would first observe and think for a long time. Rather than the flashy outward form of a bird, he expressed the essence hidden inside it.
“The expression of art is better when it is simple; the content is better when it is rich.” No matter how complex an object looks, if you think deeply and grasp its essence, you can express it simply. A simplicity that contains richness. Conversely, if you can’t see the essence, no matter how ornately you express it, the content becomes thin.
Recently, in IT — developers, designers, planners alike — talking about UX or UI,
there are too many overly structural, overly systematic approaches…
it might be a moment to stop and think about that once.
In fact, as you can feel from Kim Chong-young’s words and works,
it’s the same as the familiar, repeated everyday we always encounter.
Today, once again…
I face today’s work a little more humbly and modestly.
