Seongsan Art Hall

Kim Chung Sook, Ms. K, 1952, terra-cotta, 40 × 22 × 17 cm
Kim Chung Sook, Flying Form C, 1976, bronze, 46 × 121 × 27 cm
Kim Chung Sook, Flying Form, 1990, marble, 151 × 152 × 36.5 cm

First-generation female sculptor Kim Chung Sook researched human figures and abstract sculpture using materials such as marble, bronze, and wood. This particular work, Ms. K, was actually painted while the artist was still a faithful architecture student; the very early nature of this work reveals much about Kim’s early career interests.

The Flying Form series, is quite revealing in getting at the essence of Kim’s sculptural research during the 1970s and 1990s — a period in which she fully came into her own as a sculptor. Indeed, these works are characterized by the common theme of the human body with arms spread wide, a soaring bird mid-flight, or a female figure. Herein lies the origin and dignity of the very female body she sought to abstract — a body full of life that claims the moment of conception as well.

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art collection