『Elaine Ildan Choi, Here and Now』
A Part of The Master's Atelier Series
Presented by Korean Cultural Center New York
YouTube Premiere: March 8, 2022
The Korean Cultural Center New York sheds light on the life and art of artist Elaine Ildan Choi (b. 1936), in a special documentary and online exhibition that features not only her selected artworks, but the story of her turbulent life and fierce spirit that has remained a constant thread throughout. The video was unveiled on March 8th, 2022 to commemorate International Women’s Day and also as a part of Asia Week New York 2022.
The mini documentary follows her life spanning more than 80 years as she navigates through the tumultuous times from the Japanese occupation of Korea, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and as she builds her life around the world starting from Seoul, Korea to Paris, Beijing, and finally to New York.
Known master of Korean traditional ink paintings and a close mentor to Elaine Ildan Choi at Seoul National University, artist Chang Woo-Sung (pen name: Wol-Chun), compared her spirit to the passionate madness of the Qing Dynasty monk-artist, Zhudab, who had famously said “Nothing can be achieved without madness.” Choi’s life is undeniably an embodiment of “passion” itself.
In this exhibition and documentary, her long-time Manhattan apartment that acts as her studio and living space is unveiled to the public for the first time. Her living, breathing apartment is a self-portrait of Choi herself as it densely contains the layers of her nuanced and complex world and her free-spirited passion strewed across genres of painting, sculpture, textile, pottery, and installation works.
Photograph by Hyo Jin An
Five of Choi’s representative ink brush drawing series -- Fibonacci Sequence, UN Plaza, Maze, Autumn Winter Spring Summer, and Hahoe (34×67 in. each) -- as well as her ceramic works span over a decade of creative production.
Choi rejects the constructed titles of “artist” or being categorized as a “female artist” but recognizes the meaning and impact that they hold. Her life story and artworks are inextricably intertwined, and so organically symbiotic with one another that an attempt to understand one without the other does none justice.
This paired mini documentary and exhibition is a means to understand Elaine Ildan Choi and her world that transcends geography, gender, time, and history.
Photograph by Hyo Jin An
Behind the Scenes
Photograph by Hyo Jin An
□ Ildan Choi’s Biography
Elaine Ildan Choi was born in Seoul in 1936 and spent her childhood in Gyeongju, Korea. She grew up during the Japanese occupation period and the Korean War. In 1955, she entered the Department of Painting at Seoul National University College of Fine Art, but graduated from the Department of Sculpture with the desire to master Asian traditional painting by seeking proficiency in all the known Western art techniques at that time. After graduating from art school, she worked as a teacher for nearly 10 years then moved to Vietnam with her family, where she went through another war, the Vietnam War. She then moved to Paris with her husband and family where for three years from 1972, she studied Korean traditional ink painting under one of Korea’s most well-known artists Lee Ungno (pen name Goam, 1904-1989); she is still recognized as Goam’s the only Korean student. After moving to New York in the fall of 1975, she has been a representative Korean diaspora artist who has been active in the New York art scene. In 1986, at the age of 50, she became the first Korean to study abroad at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in China with a focus on Asian traditional painting. In 1991, she published a series of three books titled Ildan Choi’s Culture and Arts Travel: Jeong, Joong, and Dong (靜, 中, 動) which included 2,000 photos and 200 drawings that she herself documented and drew as she traveled ancient Chinese historical sites during her studies.
1936 Born in Seoul, spent her childhood in Gyeongju, Korea
1955 Entered into the Department of Painting (Western Painting) at Seoul National University College of Fine Art
1956 Transferred to the Department of Sculpture
1960 Graduated from the Department of Sculpture at Seoul National University
1968~1972 Lived in Vietnam
1972~1975 Learned Korean ink painting under Lee Ungno in Paris, France
1975 Moved to New York, USA
1980 First solo exhibition in New York
1986~1988 Majored in Landscape Painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China
1991 Published a 3-book series: Ildan Choi’s Culture and Arts Travel: Jeong, Joong, and Dong (靜, 中, 動)
1992 Her collection of Miao Costumes exhibited at the Ewha Womans University Museum
2005 Held her first invitational exhibition at the Lee Ungno Museum of Art
2022 Currently lives and works in New York
This exhibition is presented as a part of Asia Week New York (www.asiaweekny.com)