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Lee Yong Soon: A Feast of Pure White
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Written by KALONSNET Editor   
Published: March 30 2010

Line and Color Bearing Resemblance to Nature: A Feast of Pure White


Courtesy of the artist and SHINSEIDO HATANAKA

White porcelain of the Joseon period is typical of Korean ceramics. It echoes filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, sincerity, justice, and a sense of shame; the contentment in poverty, and pleasure in honesty, which were principles and virtues of the Joseon people, who relished a temperate, unaffected aesthetic of elegant, clean, plain white. The naturally flowing form of the Joseon moon-shaped jars comes from artificiality, but the profound, pure beauty of inimitable pure white is heavenly. Captivated by ancient artwork, Lee Yong-soon began making ceramics to revive traditional Seol-baikja, or snow-white porcelain. Lee presents his aesthetic sensibilities, acquired from exploration into ancient ceramics, within white porcelain, moon-shape jars. Lee experiments tirelessly with a wide variety of glazes and clays to create lucid glazes and white clay effects. He utilizes each, found through experimentation, to generate sensations of color that bare great resemblance to the ancient moon jars. His white porcelain jars depend on his use of the Updaji technique, used to connect two large bowls to create single, huge jars. The technique requires great skill for many reasons; including the fact, its success depends on the physical properties of the claybody in which each jar is cast. Lee often failed to produce perfect moon jars, as they broke at their join during the firing process. Breakages occurred in the jars he worked, and their form and color were not as he intended. But Lee studied traditional methods and techniques, including the foot’s height and proportion, to maintain a rounded form during the high firing temperature. He went through many failures in the initial stages, trying to find the right wall thickness, mouth width, and slope, until each moon-shaped jar, through long experimentation, is able to captivate viewers with the beauty of pared-down form and color, just like our ancestor’s. Lee Yong-soon’s ceramics presents the ideal aesthetic of Joseon white porcelain, exploring the quintessence of Korean beauty and its sublime, lofty spirituality.
* The text provided by SHINSEIDO HATANAKA.

Last Updated on May 12 2010
 

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