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Photo by Beth Mann
Quatrain by Jo Nam-myeong
Photo by Beth Mann

Quatrain by Jo Nam-myeong

Date2005
Maker Son Man-jin Korean, born 1964
Label TextIn 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
Object number2005.173
ProvenanceArtist; [Frank S. Bayley, III, Seattle, WA, 2005]
Photo CreditPhoto by Beth Mann
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Transforming Traditions: Japanese and Korean Art since 1800, May 23, 2009 - February 21, 2010. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Meot: Korean Art from the Frank Bayley Collection, August 28, 2024 - March 9, 2025.
Credit LineGift of Frank S. Bayley III
DimensionsOverall (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)
MediumInk, color and wax on paper