▲ Myeong An-sam aka Chungwon

Short history
Mother-of-peal lacquerware is the craft work of wooden bowls, dishes and boxes lacquered and inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Its history goes as far back as to Goryeo Kingdom and it has grown to be one of the globally acclaimed Korean crafts today thanks to those master craftsmen who have passed it down for a thousand years. Make journey to Namwon City, North Jeolla Province, where the Korea’s best known and loved opera Chunhyangjeon took place and also where a living Korean mother-of-pearl lacquerware master Myeong An-sam runs his studio ‘Chilyewon’ or ‘lacquer art academy’. 

40 years of single path
It was 1975 Myeong put his very first step into the world of mother-of-pearl lacquerware. He inherited his dexterity from his carpenter father who had excellent skills for making Korean boats and traditional houses. 

“My father had a great skill in treating various tools and equipment and I was enchanted by watching the making process and the results. But I have to say that the fate may turned my course to lacquerware instead of boat and house making as earning bread and butter was more important for me back then” says Myeong.

So he started apprenticeship and learned lacquer varnishing, mother-of-pearl inlaid and carpentry for 7 years under the strict instruction of his teacher. Feeling a confidence swelling up from inside, he boldly challenged and joined the recovery project of the banquet hall of Hotel Gajoen Tokyo in Japan in 1988. Next year in 1989, he was accepted for the 1st Ishikawa International Urushi Exhibition and he continued his career in Japan until 1992 with a notable position serving as the head of a lacquerware research institute. 

Listed in Art & Culture Masters 2013
Back in Korea, Myeong proved his ability at the 4th Korean Lacquereware Competition in 1993 followed by winning a bronze medal at the Busan Skills Competition the next year and the gold medal (employment and labor minister’s prize) at the 29th National Skills Competition the same year. 

His unstoppable feats kept going on to the top 10 Master Craftsman Exhibition in 1998, the Korean Mother-of-Pearl Lacquerware Association Exhibition in 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively, the Korea Travel Expo 2006 and winning of the National Assembly chairman’s prize in 2009. But the most notable achievement was made in 2013 where he listed his name in the Art & Culture Masters 2013 hosted by the Federation of Artistic & Cultural Organization of Korea. 

Alongside these achievements, he has been serving as the president of Korea Art & Culture Masters Association Jeolla Province and the principal of Korea Art & Culture Masters Academy through which he actively engaged in fostering talented young lacqureware craftsmen. 

“The association and the academy give more focus on promoting daily handicrafts over mother-of-pearl lacquerware alone so that more people can engage in the crafts. The judges choose a number of excellent products and give support for design registration and selling them at online shopping malls or through direct dealings in a way to promote the industry as a whole.” 

Craft Trend Fair 2018
His participation in Craft Trend Fair 2018 has a special meaning: displaying the quality made works (mainly dishes and bowls) that can shine the Korean mother-of-pearl lacquerware at the global level; this is because he regrets the unpleasant practices in the market that some of the products are carelessly made overseas and distributed cheap in the domestic market and ruin the value and spirit of the craft. 

As part of this effort to promote quality lacqureware products, Myeong is running two online communities ‘Lacqureware Space’ and ‘Mother-of-Pearl Lacquareware’ alongside his own Master Skills Academy. The academy equips the learners with both theory and practice that are needed in lacqureware and mother-of-pearl inlay as well as a support for them to obtain a national certificate in the related fields. 

Solo exhibition
Myeong values very high of the ancient saying “Learn from the old and create something new”. He realized its meaning through numerous failures. Success without failure will collapse sooner than expected is firmly cemented in his mind. What is more is that he found the principle that adding his own character to the established norm opens a unique world of one’s own style.

For this, he picked up his choice of quality wooden logs and applied his lacquer and mother-of-pearl methods to create his own style. 

“One of my recent works, for example, is themed on Yudalsan Mountain. I grew up playing with my friends around and I still remember the reeds where we caught goggle-eyed goby.’ The work delivers this childhood sentiment expressed through my own style.”

When asked about future plan, he said that he was planning a solo exhibition themed on canvas panel in terms of material with a purpose to give a new feeling to the genre. 

“Mother-of-pearl lacquerware, like most handicraft works, cannot be done by automation like AI technology if it is to give a touch and authenticity to the people instead of artificiality. The charm of traditional beauty in most cases, I believe, comes from the creator’s own manual labor and more importantly the craftsmanship. We call things as masterpieces made of the maker’s own hands and sweat in most cases because they have the soul and spirit of the maker; and that’s what we pay for.”
For some, this might sound that Myeong is like a person of old school with strict principle. But in fact he is more adaptive to the trend and the need of consumers of the time as shown through his works themed on daily goods such as spoon and chopsticks. 

“It is ok if art works are created and used for the appreciation of small number of people in our society. But I believe they will be more meaningful if they are shared with as many people as possible since art cannot exist alone in this whole wide world without communication.”

“What is more important than the figuring out the definition of art, I think, is one’s truthfulness. Truthfulness almost always touches our heart and it enriches our lives.”

At his coming solo exhibition sometime in the future, Myeong leaks us his ambitious to create a 200 meter long panel work made of lacquer and mother-of-pearl where his patches of thoughts are carved here and there; it will be the greatest feat of his whole career as a master mother-of-pearl lacquerware if completed, he expects. 

If you wish to see this will-be-masterpiece, you had better note his name and the schedule of the coming exhibitions.  

안정희 기자  honesty5835@naver.com