International Sculpture Competition: The Unknown Political Prisoner, Catalog, 1953, Image provided by Kimchongyung Museum
International Sculpture Competition
* Source: MMCA
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Kim Chongyung
Kim Chongyung (1915-1982, pen name Wooseong) was born in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do. He began studying art when he met Chang Louis Pal, an art teacher, who graduated from Tokyo School of Fine Arts and Columbia University. Kim Chongyung learned classic Chinese and calligraphy and won the first prize in calligraphy among middle school students at the 3rd National Art Contest Exhibition for Students. His art was influenced by calligraphy techniques that he had learned from his father and his scholarly contemplation of humanity and nature. He graduated from the sculpture department at Tokyo School of Fine Arts and became a professor of sculpture at Seoul National University. In 1953, he participated an international competition to design a monument to The Unknown Political Prisoner at the Tate Gallery sponsored by the Institute of Contemporary Art in the U.K. He pioneered the profile of abstract sculpture within Korea by submitting his work, Bird to the National Art Exhibition. His experimental artwork reflected his interest in welded sculpture and his use of scrap iron and often featured similar patterns and forms that were consistently repeated yet not identical. Kim’s unique approach has been considered a consequence of his training in Oriental aesthetics, and his desire to adhere to natural forms and the esoteric practice of calligraphy within his modernist sculptural practice.
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Kim Kyongseung
Kim Kyongseung (1915-1992, pen name Tanwol) was born in Kaesong, Gyeonggi-do in 1915. At Songdo High School, he learned drawing from Hwang Suljo, who had graduated from the Western painting department at Tokyo School of Fine Arts. Kim desired to become the Michelangelo of Korea. After graduating in 1933, he pursued his dream in Japan by attending Kawabata Art School, following in the footsteps of his older brother Kim Insoong. He studied drawing and entered the department of sculpture and casting at Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1934. In 1939, he graduated from Tokyo School of Fine Arts and participated in the Joseon Art Exhibition. After independence, he contributed his work to the National Art Exhibitions (Gukjeon) and taught as a professor at Hongik University and Ewha Womans University. His work A Boy, which represents “the sophisticated mind of a boy” is considered as one of the most important works of modern Korean portraiture created during the 1940s. His works varied from figure paintings, such as A Pied Piper Boy and Spring Dream, to statues and sculptures created to support social and educational purposes; he created a variety of statues, including Sejong the Great (1968), April 19th Memorial Tower, General MacArthur, Baekbeom Kim Gu at Namsan Mountain, Dr. Kim Helen, and Monument for Korean War. His works used detailed, representative, and photo-realistic facial expressions and stereoscopic details of form to present heroic images of the subjects in question.
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Yun Hyojoong
Yun Hyojoong (1917-1967, pen name Buljae) was born in Jangdan, Gyeonggi-do. He learned sculpture from Kim Bokjin and graduated from the department of sculpture at Tokyo School of Fine Arts. In the 1940s, his work Purification was selected for the 2600th Anniversary Celebration Art Exhibition and The Earth was selected for the Joseon Art Exhibition [Joseon misul jeollamhoe]. His pro-Japanese works, such as Senninbari (1943) and Sound of the Bow String (1944), won special prizes at the Joseon Art Exhibition. In 1945, he became a founding member of the Association of Joseon Sculpture and an associate professor at the newly established department of sculpture at Hongik University in 1949. In organisational rather than creative terms he significantly contributed to the development of post-war Korean art as an administrator and educator by serving as a vice chairman of the Great Korean Art Association. His early works were mainly wooden body statues based on realism. He created the Admiral Yi Sun-sin Statue in Jinhae city where Naval Base Command located during the Korean war. In the 1950s, he actively participated in the National Art Exhibition (Gukjeon), and mainly focused on the creation of statues of political figures, such as the Min Yeonghwan Statue and the Syngman Rhee Statue. He is recognised as a sculptor who combined local materials with modern formal influences, and his works are defined by qualities such as precise proportion, dynamic movement, and sophisticated technique.
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