Korean Modern Sculpture Witness ‘Artist Choi Byung-sang’ Donates Representative Works to Pohang City

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Mayor Lee Gang-deok, "We Will Do Our Best to Support So They Shine Beside Citizens"

On the 5th, Pohang City held the ‘Choi Byung-sang Artist Work Donation Ceremony’ at the City Hall External Cooperation Office.

On the 5th, Pohang City held the 'Choi Byung-sang Artist Work Donation Ceremony' at the City Hall External Cooperation Office.

This donation ceremony was made possible following the Pohang City Museum of Art’s steel art artist retrospective exhibition ‘With a Praying Heart, Choi Byung-sang’ held in May.

Choi Byung-sang (86), during his first solo exhibition in 17 years, which was a retrospective exhibition organizing his entire artistic world titled ‘With a Praying Heart, Choi Byung-sang,’ expressed his intention to donate.

Among the exhibited works, he donated a total of 18 representative pieces to the Pohang City Museum of Art that allow an understanding of his entire artistic world, ranging from his early works of iron welded sculptures from the 1960s to metal sculptures incorporating technologies such as holograms of converters and EL (Electro Luminescent) from the 2000s.

The donor, artist Choi Byung-sang, is an indispensable living witness in the history of Korean sculpture, especially in welded sculpture. He entered Seoul National University in 1957 and began presenting iron welded sculptures from his sophomore year. In 1959, at the 8th National Art Exhibition, he attracted attention in the sculpture world by winning a special prize for ‘Daechi,’ made by assembling iron plate sculptures.

Afterwards, he co-founded the ‘Modern Space Association’ with seniors and juniors from Seoul National University, expanding the base of Korean sculpture with works of radical forms and new sculptural languages. Besides his artistic activities, he devoted himself to educating future generations at Ewha Womans University from 1971 to 2002 and published Korea’s first research book on environmental sculptures, ‘Environmental Sculpture,’ in 1990.

Artist Choi Byung-sang's work 'Dream Story' 2007 (stainless steel, hologram, 80×75×85cm)

Artist Choi Byung-sang said, “I was deeply moved by the sincere consideration of Pohang City Museum of Art to manage my 18 works from the recent exhibition. I am grateful for God’s grace and express my heartfelt thanks to the citizens of Pohang.” He added, “I will devote the rest of my life to repaying this by doing my best.”

Mayor Lee Kang-deok responded, “Thank you for donating these invaluable works that cannot be measured by anything else. We will do our utmost to support so that the spirit of artist Choi Byung-sang can shine beside the citizens for a long time.”