Elaine Ildan Choi, Here and Now

'뉴욕 아시아 주간' '세계 여성의 날' 맞아 3/8부터 

 

 

뉴욕한국문화원(원장 조윤증)은 뉴욕 화가 최일단(Elaine Ildan Choi, 86)씨의 개인전 'Elaine Ildan Choi, Here and Now'을 온라인으로 연다. 3월 8일 세계여성의 날을 기해 공개되는 이 전시는 2022 뉴욕 아시아위크 기획전이자 '거장의 아틀리에 시리즈(The Master's Atelier Series)'의 한 프로그램이기도 하다. 

 

다큐멘터리 형식으로 소개되는 이번 전시는 일제 강점기, 한국전쟁과 베트남 전쟁을 겪고, 파리와 뉴욕, 북경에서 미술을 접한 최일단 작가의 세필화를 비롯, 회화, 조각, 텍스타일, 서예, 도예, 설치미술 등 폭넓은 장르의 작품과 함께 그의 자유분방한 정신세계를 밀도 있게 담아낼 예정이다. 이와 함께 최일단 작가의 작업실, 인터뷰가 소개된다. 

 

 

 

최일단 작가는 1936년 서울에서 태어나 경주에서 성장했으며, 1960년 서울대 미대 졸업 후 교사 생활을 하다가 가족과 함께 베트남으로 이주(1968-1972)해 살았다. 그리고, 1972년 파리에서 고암 이응노 화백을 사사했으며,  1975년 뉴욕에 정착한 후 50세인 1986년 한인 최초의 북경 중앙미술학원에서 유학생으로 수학했다. 1991년엔 중국 고대 유적지 사진 2천여장과 드로잉 2백여점이 포함된 여행기를 세권의 책  '최일단 발바닥 문화예술기행 정.중.동'으로 발간했다. 

 

전시를 기획한 뉴욕한국문화원의 조희성 큐레이터는 “최일단 작가는 ‘작가’ 라는 타이틀, 특히 스스로 ‘여성작가’ 라고 한번도 의식하지 않았고 그렇게 불리기를 원하지 않는다고 했지만, 그녀의 삶과 작품세계를 다루는 전시를 ‘세계여성의 날’ 과 ‘아시아위크 뉴욕’ 기간에 꼭 한번 선보이고 싶었다. 시대와 성별, 예술의 벽을 뛰어 넘어 큰 감동과 깊은 울림을 선사하는 최일단 작가의 삶과 예술이 보다 많은 사람들에게 따뜻한 위로와 희망이 되었으면 좋겠다”고 말했다. 

 

전시는 3월 8일부터 뉴욕한국문화원 홈페이지에서 볼 수 있다. 

https://www.koreanculture.org/gallery-korea/2022/03/08/elaine-ildan-choi-here-and-now

 

 

Elaine Ildan Choi, Here and Now

A Part of The Master's Atelier Series 

 

Presented by Korean Cultural Center New York

YouTube Premiere: March 8, 2022 

 

The Korean Cultural Center New York sheds light on the life and art of artist Elaine Ildan Choi (b. 1936), in a special documentary and online exhibition that features not only her selected artworks, but the story of her turbulent life and fierce spirit that has remained a constant thread throughout. The video will be unveiled on March 8th, 2022 to commemorate International Women’s Day and also as a part of Asia Week New York 2022.

 

The mini documentary follows her life spanning more than 80 years as she navigates through the tumultuous times from the Japanese occupation of Korea, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and as she builds her life around the world starting from Seoul, Korea to Paris, Beijing, and finally to New York.

 

Known master of Korean traditional ink paintings and a close mentor to Elaine Ildan Choi at Seoul National University, artist Chang Woo-Sung (pen name: Wol-Chun), compared her spirit to the passionate madness of the Qing Dynasty monk-artist, Zhudab, who had famously said “Nothing can be achieved without madness.” Choi’s life is undeniably an embodiment of  “passion” itself.

 

In this exhibition and documentary, her long-time Manhattan apartment that acts as her studio and living space is unveiled to the public for the first time. Her living, breathing apartment is a self-portrait of Choi herself as it densely contains the layers of her nuanced and complex world and her free-spirited passion strewed across genres of painting, sculpture, textile, pottery, and installation works.

 

Five of Choi’s representative ink brush drawing series -- Fibonacci Sequence, UN Plaza, Maze, Autumn Winter Spring Summer, and Hahoe (34×67 in. each) -- as well as her ceramic works span over a decade of creative production. 

 

Choi rejects the constructed titles of “artist” or being categorized as a “female artist” but recognizes the meaning and impact that they hold. Her life story and artworks are inextricably intertwined, and so organically symbiotic with one another that an attempt to understand one without the other does none justice. 

 

This paired mini documentary and exhibition is a means to understand Elaine Ildan Choi and her world that transcends geography, gender, time, and history.

 

 

Ildan Choi’s Biography

Elaine Ildan Choi was born in Seoul in 1936 and spent her childhood in Gyeongju, Korea. She grew up during the Japanese occupation period and the Korean War. In 1955, she entered the Department of Painting at Seoul National University College of Fine Art, but graduated from the Department of Sculpture with the desire to master Asian traditional painting by seeking proficiency in all the known Western art techniques at that time. After graduating from art school, she worked as a teacher for nearly 10 years then moved to Vietnam with her family, where she went through another war, the Vietnam War. She then moved to Paris with her husband and family where for three years from 1972, she studied Korean traditional ink painting under one of Korea’s most well-known artists Lee Ungno (pen name Goam, 1904-1989); she is still recognized as Goam’s the only Korean student. After moving to New York in the fall of 1975, she has been a representative Korean diaspora artist who has been active in the New York art scene. In 1986, at the age of 50, she became the first Korean to study abroad at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in China with a focus on Asian traditional painting. In 1991, she published a series of three books titled Ildan Choi’s Culture and Arts Travel: Jeong, Joong, and Dong (靜, 中, 動) which included 2,000 photos and 200 drawings that she herself documented and drew as she traveled ancient Chinese historical sites during her studies.

 

1936 Born in Seoul, spent her childhood in Gyeongju, Korea 

1955 Entered into the Department of Painting (Western Painting) at Seoul National University College of Fine Art

1956 Transferred to the Department of Sculpture

1960 Graduated from the Department of Sculpture at Seoul National University

1968~1972 Lived in Vietnam

1972~1975 Learned Korean ink painting under Lee Ungno in Paris, France

1975 Moved to New York, USA

1980 First solo exhibition in New York

1986~1988 Majored in Landscape Painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China

1991 Published a 3-book series: Ildan Choi’s Culture and Arts Travel: Jeong, Joong, and Dong (靜, 中, 動) 

1992 Her collection of Miao Costumes exhibited at the Ewha Womans University Museum 

2005 Held her first invitational exhibition at the Lee Ungno Museum of Art 

2022 Currently lives and works in New York

https://www.koreanculture.org/gallery-korea/2022/03/08/elaine-ildan-choi-here-and-now