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Does ceramics mean only white porcelain and celadon? Not at all. As works applying diverse pictorial techniques to the basic form of ceramics have emerged, the field continues to vary and evolve. "Saek-yu Man-gae" (Blooming Colored Glaze), a special donation exhibition of Kwon Soon-hyung (1929–2017) now running at the Seoul Museum of Craft Art, offers a rare glimpse into the era-spanning transformation of ceramics.
Kwon Soon-hyung is regarded as a first-generation artist of Korean modern ceramics who, moving beyond the traditional forms of celadon and white porcelain, introduced pictorial elements to ceramics centered on "saek-yu" (colored glaze). After entering the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University in 1949, he established himself as a designer at the K.K. Design Institute and the Korea Handicraft Demonstration Center. A 1959 training stint at the Cleveland Institute of Art in the United States exposed him to the world of Western modern ceramics and redirected his life toward that of a ceramic artist.
The key that runs through Kwon Soon-hyung's artistic identity lies precisely in glaze. After long research, he developed his own original "dolomite glaze," and he freely wielded, like paint, a "dolomite colored glaze" that blended metal oxides into it. By precisely controlling firing temperature and time and by spraying and layering colored glazes, he achieved intense abstract effects of bleeding and flowing, opening a new horizon for modern ceramics.
From the 1970s, he pioneered the concept of "environmental ceramics" by installing large-scale ceramic murals in major public buildings such as the National Theater, the National Assembly, and the Korea Press Center. It was an attempt to expand ceramics beyond mere objects for appreciation into architecture and public space.
The museum explained that he was "a pioneer of Korean modern ceramics who introduced pictorial expression to ceramics beyond the forms of traditional celadon and white porcelain," adding that "he is regarded as a figure who overcame the stagnation of the Japanese colonial period and presented a new direction for Korean modern ceramics after liberation."
The exhibition was organized based on the Kwon Soon-hyung Collection donated to the Seoul Museum of Craft Art in 2024–2025. Of 7,703 works and materials, 130 ceramic works and some 50 archival materials have been selected and put on display.
The exhibition runs in four parts. Part 1 illuminates his early journey (1949–1968) from starting as a designer to turning to ceramics. Through his 1950s design work, colored-glaze ceramic works made during his training in the United States, and his early works after returning home, it shows the starting point of Kwon Soon-hyung's artistic world.
Part 2 deals with his glaze experiments and exploration of pictorial expression during 1969–1989, his most prolific period as an artist. During this time, Kwon developed a colored glaze combining his own original dolomite glaze with metal oxides, rendering abstract compositions atop ceramics. His glaze experiment notebooks, test pieces, and tools are also on display. Part 3 focuses intensively on his artistic world from the 1990s onward, when his colored-glaze expression matured both artistically and technically. The final Part 4 introduces the vast archive Kwon left behind, including catalogs, leaflets, and diaries from his solo and invitational exhibitions.
The Seoul Museum of Craft Art explained that "the bleeding and flowing that glaze produces under ultra-high temperatures is the result of the artist's long experimentation and mastery," adding that "through an aesthetic of fire where chance and necessity intersect, he opened a new horizon for modern ceramics." The exhibition runs through August 2.
