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57STUDIO는 국립현대미술관의 열린강좌 프로그램 중 미술관 소장품 강좌 시리즈를 제작하였습니다. 윤범모 관장이 직접 작품을 설명하는 형식으로 구성하였으며, 실제 교육 현장에서 효과적인 학습 자료로 활용될 수 있도록 제작되었습니다. 또한, 어느 장면을 캡처하더라도 교육 자료로서의 기능이 충실히 전달될 수 있도록 화면을 구성하였습니다. 이 시리즈는 작가 12명의 작품을 조명하며, 매주 수요일 YouTube LIVE를 통해 공개되었습니다.

57STUDIO produced the Museum Collection Lecture Series as part of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s (MMCA) open lecture program. The series was structured in a format where Director Yoon Bum-mo personally explains each artwork, ensuring its effectiveness as a valuable educational resource for use in learning environments.

The videos were designed so that every frame could function as an informative material, regardless of where it was captured. This series highlights the works of 12 artists and was released weekly via YouTube LIVE every Wednesday.

Kwon Jinkyu, Jiwon’s Face, 1967

Today, we will examine a work by Kwon Jinkyu. What you are looking at here is Jiwon’s Face, produced in 1967, in the later part of his career. It is made from a unique material: terracotta. In other words, clay is shaped for firing. Notice how the exposed surface emphasizes the distinctive quality of the clay, as compared to other three-dimensional works It depicts the upper half of a body.

Looking closely, we can see that it is a frontal image of a young woman. She seems to be staring straight ahead off into the distance, with an erect neck. You can see that she’s wearing a scarf, and her facial features are well defined. Unlike similar sculptures, however, the shoulders are extremely simplified, rendered as steep lines. Overall, the figure conveys a religious impression, like some type of an ascetic. Kwon Jinkyu produced many busts like this one. Some of them were sculptures of his own head, or the heads of Buddhist nuns In fact, he produced many busts of Buddhist nuns and other young women. I remember the pamphlet from one of his solo exhibitions, , I think it was in the 1970s. The cover of the pamphlet showed a photo juxtaposing several of Kwon’s head sculptures with an image of his own face in the center. I guess it was meant to equate his face with the women’s faces, or the faces of Buddhist nuns. So we can guess that his intention with these busts was to capture the resonance of his most sincere inner mind.

Significantly, Kwon Jinkyu went to study in Japan in the late 1940s after Korean independence in 1945. While many Korean artists had studied in Japan during the Japanese colonial period, Kwon went there after independence, and was active in Japan in the 1950s. To briefly examine his career before going to Japan, we should start with Kim Bokjin’s Maitreya sculpture, a masterpiece of the late colonial period, located in Beopjusa Temple on Mt. Songni This unique Buddhist sculpture was made from cement, but it remained unfinished, because Kim Bokjin died when he was just 39 years old. So his student Yun Hyojoong decided to finish the work, and the young Kwon Jinkyu was part of the project, so he gained experience in producing Buddhist sculpture. We should also mention Lee Quede, one of the most important Korean painters of the 1940s, who was imprisoned by the US Army in the Geoje POW Camp during the Korean War, and later chose to go to Pyongyang, North Korea.Kwon Jinkyu studied art under Lee Qoede. So Kwon studied under two of the greatest artists of the time, Kim Bokjin and Lee Quede.

Then in Japan, he attended Musashino Art University. He had a very wide artistic range, from representational statues of people or animals to somewhat abstract sculptures. Although Kwon made some bronze sculptures, he primarily produced terracotta works, like this one. That seems to imply that he wanted to emphasize the materiality of clay itself. Notably, he also utilized the traditional technique of dry lacquer. Many of the surviving Buddhist sculptures from the Joseon dynasty were produced with this dry lacquer technique. Several layers of hemp or paper are coated with lacquer and attached to a wood surface, to enhance the three-dimensional quality. Again, Kwon Jinkyu was unique in using this traditional method in his modern sculptures.

Maybe he was ahead of his time, or just unfortunate, because he didn’t receive much attention from the public during his lifetime. This was a factor in his premature death, as he committed suicide in his studio in Donam-dong, Seoul. His last words were, “Life is emptiness and destruction.” Although his last words were about the transience of life, what he manifested in his art was not so much transience as the image of eternal salvation, or the woman as the image of salvation. In the history of Korean sculpture, particularly by the late twentieth century, Kwon Jinkyu occupies a singular domain.

Today, he is considered to be one of the best sculptors in Korean art history. At least we can say that the negligence of the public during his lifetime has been reversed. We usually divide three-dimensional artworks into two categories: carving a form from a larger mass (like with wood or marble), or molding a form, as with clay.In this field of three-dimensional art, Kwon Jinkyu set himself apart with his unique and independent style.So he is highly acclaimed both in art history and among the general public. But the art that he left behind for us caused such great reverberations that they are still resonating with people to this day.

Jiwon’s Face is considered to be one of Kwon Jinkyu’s representative works. The depth, the resonance, and the unity delivered from every detail of the expression on this young woman’s face, looking straight ahead, continue to emanate I think that’s why Kwon Jinkyu is so highly regarded in art history.I hope that Jiwon’s Face (1967) by Kwon Jinkyu from the collection of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, this magnificent terracotta bust that is Kwon’s representative work, will give you a new appreciation for the true beauty and essence of three-dimensional art.