EPILOGUE ... CONCLUSION

The Final Exit to Reach for the Art
Through the art theory studies of Clement Greenberg (1909~1994) in the
West and Chung-Hee Kim (1786~1856) in the East

                  Yong-Su Lee

       The Art Institute of Chicago

           The Moam Collection

 

 

Huh Ryeon, 「Portrait of Chu-sa Chung-Hee Kim」& Chung-Hee Kim, 「Orchid(In-jeong-hyang-too)」, Private Collection

  

 Jackson Pollock & Jackson Pollock, 「Greyed Rainbow」, 1953, Oil on canvs, The Art Institute of Chicago

  

Damien Hirst & Marc Guinn & Guillermo Vargas 

 

                             IV
Until now I have traced and examined Greenberg’s theory of
art focusing more on his concept of avant-garde art and Chung-
Hee Kim’s scholarship in art and have examined their applications
to the practical art works.

Even though Greenberg somewhat modified his original concept
of avant-garde art he continuously maintained his basic notion
of avant-garde and made efforts to support that theme until his
death. In my view, I believe the main purpose of Greenberg’s theory
is to make the world of avant-garde a high cultural form.
After the appearance of the totally new concept of art,
‘Ready-Made’by Marcel Duchamp (1913) in the history of art, the
form of art has greatly changed, somewhat in the wrong direction
in my view. Under post-modern culture, everything can be a work
of art and everybody can be an artist also. Because art has become

too abstract, “meaningless abstract,”the general public can not
understand the meaning of the works by so-called “artists.” It is
even very difficult for art historians and art critics to understand
this new form of art as well.

‘What is Art?’and ‘What should Art be?’I believe art is
another form of language (a means of communication) between the
artists and the viewers. If we want to communicate with each
other, art should be a certain recognizable form. I think this is the
basic condition for the genuine interaction between artist and
beholder. Artists want to try to say something through their art
works even though most modern and post-modern artists say that
self-education or self-satisfaction is more important than the viewers’satisfaction.
It would appear that a logical flaw in their statement
above if then they do not have to locate their works on the
public spaces such as galleries or museums, etc. I believe art
should be shared by everybody - not only art related people or a
certain limited audience. And I also believe art should be based on
the “correct”philosophy. In fact, everything in our universe is
based on a certain philosophy. And then ‘what is the philosophy
now?’,‘ What kind of thought is supporting everything including
art now?’ I might say ‘capitalism’, simply ‘money’, is the main

philosophy or main thought at present. My point is that everything
including art is polluted by capitalism ? distorted capitalism.
(Money) Most contemporary artists are seeking new or strange
ways to attract art related people and general public, and artists are
trying to attain fame and only want to achieve financial success to
do so.

I have researched many definitions and meanings of art in dictionaries
and encyclopedias and found one common simple definition
(meaning). This is that ‘art is an extracurricular activity.’As I
see it this means we should not create art as a means to a livelihood
for making money. This is connected with ‘the purity in art
or the pure art form.’If this is true then what is the right philosophy?
I would argue that we should seek ‘morality’in every field
of our universe including in the realm of art, and ‘Morality’could
be the right philosophy. Everything including Art in our universe
should be based on‘ Morality.’

Ultimately, though, there are not absolute answers for the two
fundamental questions above ? namely,‘ What is Art?’and‘ What
should art be?’

 

To answer these questions Greenberg and Chung-Hee Kim, a
Korean scholar as well as an artist, shed some light. We need sincere
‘self-criticism’to create our own originality of art. ‘Self-
Criticism’means our true artistic anguish and deliberation for the
art. Most post-modern artists simply try to follow the way of former
masters without deep thought and criticism.

I would like to urge that now it is the time to re-consider and
to think about the meaning and the value of art.

ⓒ 모암문고 www.moamcollection.org