元大正論

A Study on Won, Dae Chung

Won Dae Chung was a member of the first generation of Korean contemporary ceramic artists. He played a key role in the creation and development of contemporary ceramics in Korea as a both ceramic artist and an educator with belief in the progress of history and avant garde aesthetics. He taught as a professor of ceramics and worked actively on ceramics during the 1960s, when the contemporary ceramics of the West was introduced to Korea. Won Dae Chung helped unfold a new chapter called contemporary ceramics in Korea by adding modern, formative elements to time-honored traditional ceramics. Most noteworthy about Won’s works are that he was painter-turned-ceramic artist and that he concentrated on white porcelain until he passed away. He pursued natural beauty in his earlier works, which are of extremely elaborate craftsmanship. His works of later years are more bold, voluminous, and of large scale, showing that he was then pursuing more refined forms. Won Dae Chung’s works can be broadly divided into four periods: early period from 1958 to 1967, when he was seeking ceramic arts and exploring ceramics; from 1968 to 1982, when he created a beauty of simplicity and gentleness through white porcelain and attempted modern interpretation and transformations of white porcelain; from 1983 to 1996 when he produced works of elaborate forms and refined expression; and the period from 1997 to 2007, when he pursued abstractionism focusing on large-scale works. The large-scale works by Won produced in his last ten years, among others, were far ahead of their time. They have imposing dignity and are of abstract forms, not to mention enormous scale. All the works by Won Dae Chung connect the past and the present with focus on white porcelain, and they manifest his aesthetic philosophy. He pursued evolution and innovation of tradition without destroying forms composed by lines. His white porcelain manifests characteristics of the Korean aesthetic sense, which is represented by being natural.