Choi Manlin
Choi Manlin, Eve 65-8, 1965, Bronze, 78x35x40cm. MMCA collection

Choi Manlin

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Choi Manlin (1935-2020) was a first-generation sculptor who studied sculpture in post-liberation Korea, focusing on abstract sculpture. Born in Seoul, he graduated from the Sculpture Department in the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University and received his MFA from the same university. He served as a professor in the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University from 1967 through 2001 and as director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea (now MMCA) from 1997 through 1999. Choi submitted his works to several editions of the National Art Exhibition (Gukjeon) from 1949 through 1960 and took part in the Paris Biennale in 1965 and the São Paulo Biennale in 1969. In 1973, he held his first solo exhibition at Shinsegae Gallery, and a grand-scale retrospective on Choi was held at the MMCA in 2014. In 2019, the Choi Man Lin Museum opened in the space that the artist had used as a residence and studio for thirty years, upon renovation. As a middle school student, Choi Manlin submitted his work to the first National Art Exhibition in 1949 and received an honorable mention. However, it was only after he graduated from the university in 1958 and presented works in the form of series that his artistic activity began. His oeuvre is categorized by theses of his work. In the Eve series (1958–1965), Choi depicted the suffering and devastation of post-war society through a rough-skinned female figure named Eve or revealed a will to live with a female figure standing tall. Around 1965, he turned his attention to the search for the identity of Korean sculpture. He gave sculptural forms to Chinese characters in the Sun & Moon, Heaven & Earth, and Grace series, all of which explored the identity of Korean art especially in the wielding of ink and brush. In the Placenta and Vein series, which began around 1975, he took life as a theme and tried to visually represent it. The Dot series produced after 1987 and the O series created until his latter days show a status stylistically devoid of superfluousness. The thesis of O signifies reaching complete emptiness or state of mental liberation, in which nothing means anything. Choi’s oeuvre, which eliminates descriptive elements, is considered to have pursued Korean aesthetics based on an Eastern worldview.
* Source: MMCA

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