To this day, Kim Chong Yung (1915-1982; penname: Woosung) has been assessed as a “pioneer of abstract sculpture in contemporary South Korea.” However, as the basis of and the tradition leading to such accomplishments, the artist’s work in traditional East Asian calligraphy ? especially the relationship of influence with calligraphy executed by Kim Jeong-hui (1786-1856; pennames: Chusa and Wandang), which takes up the greatest share ? has been omitted. Consequently, we have been unable to read properly the decisive keywords for deciphering the language of Kim Chong Yung’s sculpture: “agreement between tradition and contemporaneity” and “union of the domestic and the foreign,” which are among ideas that he most strongly emphasized. It is precisely at this point that a dialogue between Kim Chong Yung and Kim Jeong-hui is necessary. The ideological basis of Kim Chong Yung’s art, too, shows clearly that he was not one-sidedly Eurocentric but made the Eastern spirit penetrating both the West and the contemporary era the center of his work. In this respect, Kim Chong Yung was the one who practiced “Eastern thought and Western means” in the true sense. The true value of Kim Chong Yung’s artistic achievements lies in presenting, in praxis, the direction of Eastern and Western art in the 21st century by carving with the ink brush and fusing the contemporary Western art of abstractionism into the East Asian tradition of xieyi during the great transition from traditional East Asian calligraphy and painting to contemporary art in the 20th century. Likewise, Kim Jeong-hui as seen from Kim Chong Yung’s perspective was not a blind follower of traditional Chinese culture. Kim Chong Yung did not at all hesitate to compare Kim Jeong-hui with Cezanne or Picasso, stating, “The artistry of Kim Jeong-hui’s calligraphy lies more in the beauty of the structure than in the beauty of the rhythm… I have compared Kim Jeong-hui with Cezanne because every time I look at his calligraphy, it reminds me of cubism.” By synthesizing and perfecting traditional calligraphy in the East Asian world in the 19th century with a constructive sense of plastic beauty, Kim Jeong-hui penetrated not only traditional East Asian calligraphy and painting but also contemporary art, thus opening to the world the gates to the future of Korean arts from early on. In this context, the dialogue between Kim Chong Yung and Kim Jeong-hui once again reminds us, who live in the 21st century on this land, what tradition and contemporaneity, the East and the West are. Such an attempt is akin to elucidating the fact that the essence of beauty transcending genre and era is always found at the intersection and in the integration of domestic and foreign elements. The dialogue between Kim Jeong-hui and Kim Chong Yung reminds us that great transitions of severance and chaos are all the more times when we can find an even larger order of beauty by welding opposite cultures together.

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