Quatrain by Jo Nam-myeong

2005

Korean, born 1964

In this innovative work, Son Man-jin gives new life to old sentiments and classic art forms. The artist revitalizes the traditional art of calligraphy and makes it relevant for our present-day world. The words composed 500 years ago by Confucian scholar-recluse Jo Nam-myeong (1501-1572) come alive again in the unrestrained brushwork and passionate expression of a resolutely 21st-century artist:

Pay a visit to the thousand stone bells;
If not struck hard, they make no sound.
In antiquity the King of Heaven [reigned atop] the summit;
The cries of Heaven are like no sound at all.

-Translation by Seaver Milnor, Blakemore Intern for Chinese Art

Ink, color and wax on paper

Overall (mounting & endknobs & hanging cord): 68 7/8 × 41 5/8 in. (175 × 105.7 cm)

Image (calligraphy only): 24 3/16 × 35 13/16 in. (61.5 × 91 cm)

Gift of Frank S. Bayley III

2005.173

Provenance: Artist; [Frank S. Bayley, III, Seattle, WA, 2005]

Photo by Beth Mann

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, "Transforming Traditions: Japanese and Korean Art since 1800", May 23, 2009 - February 21, 2010

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