Chung Hee-ja, director of the ArtSonje Center and Museum and wife of ex-Daewoo Group chairman Kim Woo-joong, received the Mont Blanc De La Culture Arts Patronage Award, a prize given to those who have supported aspiring artists and contributed to the development of the arts.
Previous winners of the award include Queen Sophia of Spain, HRH Charles Prince of Wales and English composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Chung, 71, is the first Korean women to receive the award, said officials at Mont Blanc.
“I started the art business (in Korea) 30 years ago when nobody paid attention to it. Although I no longer work in the field, I think Mont Blanc has recognized my past work,” said Chung on Wednesday at Millennium Hilton Hotel, a five-star hotel she owned before Daewoo Group collapsed in 1999.
Chung Hee-ja, director of the ArtSonje Center and Museum, speaks at a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday. (Chung Hee-cho/The Korea Herald)
Chung, one of the pioneers of the country’s art business, has been supporting artists in many fields from fine arts and choreography to film.
“All I did was buy brushes and paints for artists and support small groups of artists in various fields. Busan International Film Festival, which I supported in the beginning, was one of them,” she said.
In 1991, she built and opened the first private modern art museum in Korea, ArtSonje Museum, in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla. She brought sculptures, paintings and photographs from Europe and the United States and also introduced Korean modern art and artists to the public and the world.
Chung also opened the ArtSonje Center in Seoul to promote Korean contemporary experimental art. Her daughter Kim Sun-jung now serves as a vice-director of the center.
Chung added that she hopes to see more support for artists as the country has economically advanced over the years.
The arts patronage awards are given by Mont Blanc, a leading luxury pen-maker, to a dozen recipients around the world. The winners are chosen by local juries in each country. Korean judges for this year’s award included Chung Choon-soo, dean of the music school at Kyung Hee University, Park Eun-hee, director of the Korea Festival Ensemble, and Rhee Ji-eun, associate professor of art history at Myung Ji University.
By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)
