REVIEW
The meaning of <Sarang Mountain> as a frontier base for ‘the road of love through art'
Yun Jin-Seop
2022
Sungmo Cho is about to celebrate his 37th solo exhibition, which marks a significant milestone in his artistic career. This article briefly describes my critical perspective on Sungmo Cho’s life and art, which I have been observing since he moved to the United States in 1992.
Ⅰ.
It is not easy to define Sungmo Cho’s life and art in a single phrase, due to the unique personal experiences he has had. After 30 years of living in the United States, reflecting back on his journey, he, like most immigrants in America, has also experienced a bitter and challenging path. Settling in New York with his family, Sungmo Cho worked as a limo driver in Manhattan to cover his tuition and living expenses. The life of a limo driver that he pursued for over 7 years, starting from his arrival in the United States in 1992, had completely reversed day and night. This lifestyle, which mainly involved picking up passengers at the Manhattan World Trade Center in the dark of night and embarking on long-distance trips, unexpectedly provided him with various subjects and inspirations related to painting. Among them, his work based on an impressive prison building with tall, white fences is one of the representative works of that period. He titled this painting <Wall>(created in 1995). In the artwork, several trees with abundant branches stand against the backdrop of the high, white prison wall that cuts across the center of the canvas, and a full moon rises behind the wall, leaving a lasting impression. The presence of double mesh fences installed on the wall indicates that this building is a prison. The land on which the trees have their roots is painted in dark colors, and the trees themselves are also depicted in a dark, flat silhouette. By closely examining this artwork, we can vividly witness the initial manifestation of Sungmo Cho’s artworks that feature a strong tendency towards formalization, using trees and forests as subjects.
Even before immigrating to the United States, when he was active as an artist in Korea, Sungmo Cho frequently depicted road landscapes. In 1991, when I invited Sungmo Cho to participate in the [Echoes of Seoul Exhibition] as a commissioned artist at Gwanhun Gallery, his paintings also focused on road landscapes. The reason why I, as an art critic and independent curator, began to pay attention to Sungmo Cho’s artwork was his solo exhibition held at Now Gallery in 1991. The exhibition showcased a series of paintings depicting urban roadscapes, titled [Signal of Civilization]. At the moment I saw those artworks, I was captivated by the surrealist techniques displayed in his works and his bold visual juxtaposition of urban civilization and nature. Around that time, Seoul had grown into a massive city with a population of over 10 million, and was facing various social and environmental issues, including pollution caused by rapid urbanization and overpopulation. Coming from Buyeo, Chungcheongnam-do, Sungmo Cho struggled to adapt to the life in Seoul. As a result, during his university years in the late 1970s, he often visited Banpo, where the express bus terminal was located, in order to travel to Buyeo, where his family lived, on weekends.
II.
The painting department of the College of Fine Arts at Chung-Ang University, where Sungmo Cho attended, had a strong tradition of realism. Professors from the representational lineage, including Choi Young-rim, Jang Ri-seok, and Hwang Yu-yeop, produced countless representational artists. Among the professors, only Jung Young-ryeol was an abstract artist. This tradition of extreme realism produced exceptional artists. For example, Bae Dong-hwan and Byun Jong-gon emerged in the art scene of the 1970s through their political paintings. In 1982, Im Heung-soon, Lee Myung-bok, Lee Jong-goo, Song Chang, Jeon Joon-yeop, Hwang Jae-hyeong, Cheon Kwang-ho, and others formed the <Im-sul Year> group. Around this time, Sungmo Cho depicted books piled up in a cabinet realistically in his artwork titled <Books> for the 11th National University Art Exhibition, which earned him the prestigious Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Award.
Chung-Ang University not only had extreme realism but also had experimental and avant-garde artists. For instance, the <Damoo> group, formed by alumni of the painting department at Chung-Ang University, such as Kim Jeong-sik and Hong Seon-woong, held the <Daeseong-ri 31> exhibition in 1981, marking the first outdoor art festival in Korea. During this time, when the art scene was dominated by modernism, the “Reality and Utterance” group, which was launched in 1979 by the Korean people’s art movement, gradually started showing signs of cracks. Sungmo Cho is one of the artists who can witness this period through his experience in the art scene. In 1980, at the first [Keumkang River Contemporary Art Festival], he installed a metaphorical representation of the distorted history of the Baekje Kingdom, a chair about 4 meters high, on the Baeksa Beach near Gongju.1) He also participated in the [Andepangtang] exhibition2) hosted by the Korean Artists Association, which attracted young artists interested in contemporary art, multiple times in the 70s and 80s. He participated in the [Daeseong-ri] exhibition (1985-6) and also actively engaged in the contemporary art movement with fellow artists. He was invited to the 1st and 2nd Triennial Exhibition in 1987 and 1991 and became an invited artist at the [87 Young Artists Exhibition] hosted by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, in 1987.
The art scene in the mid-1980s, when Sungmo Cho was actively engaged in art, was a period in which young artists sought career opportunities through small group movements. Groups such as <Meta-Vox>, <Nanji-do>, <TARA>, <Logos and Pathos> pursued career paths while representing diverse perspectives and ideologies. In this context, Sungmo Cho sought his own unique position by participating in solo exhibitions rather than group activities, and by winning awards at various art competitions organized by the media, such as the [Dong-A Art Festival by Dong-A Press Group], [Grand-Prix Exhibition held by Chung-ang Press Group ], and [Grand-Prix Exhibition held by Hankook Press Group]. It was in the late 1980s that Sungmo Cho’s series <Signal of Civilization>, which incorporated elements of surrealistic expression, began to draw attention in the art world. After about seven years since the start of his <City Image> series in 1980, the initially somewhat abstract and geometric forms in his paintings gradually transformed into concrete representations of objects, with the appearance of traffic signs and long stretches of roads. In the solo exhibition at Now Gallery in 1991 that I attended, there were paintings depicting scenes of an arch-shaped tunnel beneath the towering buildings of a massive city, with triangular traffic signs flying in the air below.
Participating in Sungmo Cho’s [Ecole de Seoul] exhibition was a very important opportunity that recognized his artistic world centered around the theme of the city. It was a green light for him to establish a solid position as an artist by continuing his activities in Korea. However, despite the promising future, Sungmo Cho, who harbored ambitions for international success, decided to immigrate after visiting Hawaii, L.A, and New York in 1990. Thus, he led his entire family on the journey of immigration. The changes in his life that took place in 1992 brought about not only the hardships of artistic life in a foreign land but also a renewed passion for creation. Although the Sublime Affair posed the greatest crisis of putting an end to his ability to work and closing down his framing store and art gallery, it ironically became an opportunity for him to fully focus on his career as a full-time artist.
It was in the late spring of 2011 that Sungmo Cho made a big decision. Filled with a desperate desire to create art, he temporarily separated from his family and obtained a studio in a building in downtown New York to dedicate himself to painting. He became immersed in the world of creation, locked in his studio. Since his first solo exhibition at the Gwanhun Gallery in Seoul’s Insa-dong in 1985, Sungmo Cho has held approximately 37 solo exhibitions and has been invited to participate in over 150 group and curated exhibitions, establishing himself as a prominent mid-career artist.
III.
In 2012, Sungmo Cho’s move to Sarang Mountain marked a significant turning point or milestone in his life. A year prior, he had the opportunity to unleash his passion for creation that had been pent up in his heart like a deep-rooted resentment. Sarang Mountain3) is considered his ‘canvas of nature’, where he portrays nature in his own colors, reflecting his lifelong work. A sincere artist in his own life, Sungmo Cho added ‘LOVE’ to his originally set themes of ‘civilization, city, and humanity’, aiming to become a messenger of love. Since ‘LOVE’ emerged as the theme of his artwork in 2009, Sarang Mountain has now become a place where the practice of compassion and universal love can be realized.
‘The road’ is the most prominent theme in Sungmo Cho’s creative life spanning over 40 years. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that Sungmo Cho has solely focused on drawing and creating sculptural and installation works centered on ‘the road’ until now. For him, the road represents not only the ‘path of life’ but also concrete roads depicted within his artworks. Although it may appear that his nomadic life has settled at Sarang Mountain, deep inside, he continues to fiercely explore new aspects of the road. The road serves as a connection between the major themes of Sungmo Cho’s artwork – ‘nature, civilization, and humanity’ – and serves as a passage or channel that illuminates the future vision for humanity. which is none other than love.
IV.
In an interview, Sungmo Cho said, “Like experiencing various things in the journey of life, I consider a canvas as a life and divide it into ‘roads,’ placing various images in it.” These words represent his unique style of painting. The <road> he mentions is a metaphor for life, much like in director Federico Fellini’s film <La Strada>. If you look at Cho’s life journey, you can see this comes from real experience. Especially the history of him dedicating seven years of his life as aousine driver reinforces the symbolism of the <road>. The scenery of forests and cities observed while driving a taxi were embodied on the canvas surface as mirrors reflecting his life. These images are not raw, but imprinted on the canvas as strong secretions of life melted by the rich juice of life. His views on civilization and future vision are contained in words like ‘LOVE’ and ‘Sarang-means ‘love’ in Korean, which are added on top of seriously formalized forests, moons, trees, and cityscapes. His passion and concern for the ‘Sarang Mountain’ in this era of global crisis due to environmental pollution destroying ecosystems day by day, go beyond the meaning of simple labor and contain the meaning of restoring the global ecosystem. His attention to environmental issues and his desire to restore nature through constant physical labor carries meaning comparable to social sculpture represented by Joseph Beuys’ ‘7000 Oaks’ (1982, Kassel, Germany). This hard work, in which an artist invested his time in the latter part of his life to turn ruins that no one took care of into fertile soil where beautiful flowers, birds, and butterflies coexist, being with great social significance and sends a valuable message to humanity, It is none other than love.
After immigrating to Sarang Mountain, Sungmo Cho has been carrying out pencil works for several years. It is, quite literally, a performance. He carves large and small pencils by shaping the trees he finds around his home. Sungmo Cho depicts the corrupted media as ‘bent pencils’ (曲筆) and ‘rotten pencils’ (腐筆) that turn away from the truth, critiquing and satirizing their reality through pencil sculptures. Last year, Sungmo Cho began the task of climbing a tree about 40 meters high in Sarang Mountain and using a chainsaw to shape the tree into a pencil. As a monumental performance of sorts, a task risking his life, Sungmo Cho successfully completed the work and is currently in the process of creating a 4-meter-high hexagonal pencil. He mentioned that he is currently drying the wood before proceeding with the actual production. Watching the scene of him climbing to the top of the tall tree and trimming the branches with a chainsaw, I felt both a sense of anxiety and astonishment at his unwavering passion for art. And I thought to myself, this sight will be remembered by art lovers as a symbol of Sungmo Cho’s strong determination towards his life and art, considering his unique background as a former officer in a courageous special forces unit during his youth.
1) Interview with Sungmo Cho, June 3, 2022.
2) This exhibition, representing independence, was established by the Korean Artists Association in 1972. Originally, its purpose was to select artists for participation in international exhibitions such as the Paris Biennale. This exhibition initially garnered great interest from young artists aspiring to participate in international exhibitions, but it gradually lost its fame and popularity since the 1980s.
3) According to Sungmo Cho’s memoir, the discovery of this location was a matter of destiny. As someone who had always dreamed of living in the mountains, Sungmo Cho purchased this land, which covers about 1,500 pyeong (approximately 1.2 acres), and devoted his heart and soul to transforming it into the now famous “Sarang Mountain” that can be searched on Google.