The Artist and History
October 18 - November 11, 2007

When it comes to Choi Jong-Tae, historical consciousness is the power source of his work. In the flow of contemporary art, where denial of tradition along with the expressive freedom of the individual artist have formed the mainstream, there have been quite a few artists who still valued analysis of other civilizations, different eras, and works by other artists as well. But for Choi, the past and present of Eastern and Western art have always been the subject of research, from the Parthenon of Greece, Egyptian sculptures of the gods, the Madonna and Child of the Medieval Ages and the Pieta of Michelangelo, to the landscapes of Vermeer, and most of all, the Seokguram and Bangasayu-sang statues of Buddha in Gyeongju, Korea. Furthermore, he cherishes his experiences of direct and indirect exchanges with contemporary artists such as Giacometti, Brancusi, Morandi, Chang Uc-Jin, Kim Jong-Young, Lee Dong-Hun and Park Su-Geun, in person or through their works, as shown in his literature and speech. Especially looking at his magic-marker, watercolor, Korean ink or pencil drawings of his colleagues' works, we realize how he has absorbed their anguish and solutions concerning art as his own experience.

In the midst of the development of Korean contemporary sculpture, where diverse schools and techniques such as abstraction, minimalism, conceptual art, action painting and objets were being rapidly introduced, Choi stubbornly persisted in constructing his own world of art. This attitude may seem to contradict his open attitude and historical consciousness. But he has always focused on the spirituality of artists, pursuing the ultimate proposition of beauty, rather than on the plastic characteristics that are evident in the appearances of works of art from the past or present. And it is not the formal aspect but the spiritual aspect of those works that were absorbed into Choi's works.

In his first book of essays, The Artist and Historical Consciousness, published in 1986, Choi wrote that the creation of art was not only the personal act of the artist, but also a process of investigation of achievements and influences throughout the history of humankind. This does not simply mean that that the artist is satisfying his intellectual curiosity or using in his own work the knowledge he has gained from formative analysis of the art schools of various eras. It means that the artist understands his existence in the whole history that links present and past, and thus accepts historical responsibility. His statement "To me, the subject of art is life, which is connected to our entire world. Therefore, shape has a responsibility for history and the environment" demonstrates such a historical consciousness.

Transcending Logic, Reason and Formal Beauty

Through numerous essays and books, Choi has stated that the purpose of his work has been to realize ideal beauty. At the same time, he makes clear that beauty is the means and not the goal. Such seemingly contradictory attitudes lead to the question: what is ultimate beauty? Looking at the various phenomena in contemporary society, not only art but also philosophy and esthetics have given up on answering the question, or even denied the appropriateness of the question itself. Various discourses of art have also turned in a direction of social interpretation and acceptance of art, rather than pursuing the essence of beauty. Amidst such trends, the case of Choi Jong-Tae, who has consistently pursued beauty and the enlightening role of art, is truly exceptional.

Mentioning Confucius's Hwesahuso, the artist once said what is important to us is not the order of form of painting, but the matter of course and essence. The exterior form must be expressed against the background of the inner spirit. While recalling his past journey, he said after we pass a certain stage, we must rely not on personal intellect or powers, but on God. Like climbing onto the top of a hill or reaching a stage of transition, we cannot see our destination until we reach a certain point, cannot tell where we are; but if we reach that point we can get a better picture of the path we must travel.

Observing Choi's work in pursuit of the essence of beauty and deliverance, someone wrote in the visitor's book, "What is eternal is feminine, and what is feminine is eternal." This points out that the artist's consistent subject matter-mother and girl-are the fundamental elements of nature and symbols of religious salvation; and at the same time, it reminds us of the last scene of the chorus in Faust. "Everything vain is merely a reflection. What is not reachable is realized in heaven, and what cannot be spoken was realized here. The eternal woman leads us up to the high heavens." The mysterious song tells us that the hero of Goethe's play, who endlessly challenged the limitations of man with undaunted will power and intelligence, also eventually had to rely on a transcendent being, and nevertheless, hope and deliverance were waiting.

Hence, to Choi Jong-Tae, formative work is a journey of eternity towards God, and is a process of pursuing a world that overcomes the limits of the secular and material world, regardless of divisions such as Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. It seems that the human figure of his work, abstract to the extent that we cannot tell its gender, age, race or occupation, praying with its hands together, also represents the artist himself.