Artist Huh to hold 'emography' exhibition
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Huh Hwe-tae
By Kim Jae-heun
Huh Hwe-tae, the inventor of “emography” or a new art form of painting and calligraphy merged, will present 101 of his pieces at a solo exhibition at Hangaram Art Museum of the Seoul Arts Center from March 18-27.
Huh’s show harmonizes various art works including emography, calligraphy, painting and sculpture in a philosophical approach to the idea of “the root of life.”
His emographic paintings form up to 80 percent of the exhibit. Emography, a coined term of emotion and calligraphy, is simply drawn on a rice paper with Chinese ink, whereas pictorial emography is three-dimensional.
“Emography is the contraction form of objects likes icons on desktops,” said Huh. “I deliver soul into each piece on the tip of the brush. Soul cannot be duplicated, so there is only one original art work.
“Most of the time, the final product requires great effort but sometimes, I fall into a trance and finish the work in one shot. When I was working on a piece called ‘Enjoy Oneself in Comfort,’ I became very excited and put all my energy into it. I fainted after I completed the work,” said Huh.
Pictorial emography’s solid characteristic allows Huh to communicate with his audience more actively. The artist wrote his philosophy on rice paper and crumpled the paper into balls that he later put together to form a piece titled “Neither Thought Nor Non-Thought.” The work expresses continuity of life, infinitive repeatability and inexhaustible mutating energy in a boundless space and basic biological phenomenon.
Huh’s works were exhibited overseas in Sweden, the United States and Germany and appreciated as a new genre that awakens the five senses.
“I held an art show in James Madison University for seven months and gained a lot of popularity. Foreign critics see my pieces as true art that guides the soul. My works are understood better abroad while Koreans only see my works in terms of another type of calligraphy,” said Huh.
The artist built his career in calligraphy until 2002 and has 50 years of career experience in the field.
“I want to create an artificial platform where the world can communicate through my art pieces in next few years. They will look very real even on a computer monitor or a smart phone screen. Eventually, I dream of hosting an emography festival someday,” said Huh.