Chapter 83

83

* * * *

Benedetto Varchi, a philosopher from Florence.

Michelangelo wrote a letter to Varchi only once.

It was when Varchi sent a lecture transcript and responses from seven artists regarding his lecture on "The Excellence of Art, and Which is More Noble, Sculpture or Painting," delivered on the third Sunday of Lent in 1546.

The entire letter is quite worth reading, but today I will excerpt only a part of it.

"Whether it be sculpture or painting, the same intelligence should be displayed. Let's put aside the debate and leave them both in peace. We don't even have time to make our works."

Michelangelo's letter was cynical.

He wanted to work rather than argue.

* * * *

"Then I'll be going."

With those words, Gang Seok stood up without hesitation and left with Jo Dongbeom.

He didn't need to ask; Gang Seok was heading to work. Having observed him for a short while, Gang Seok was that kind of person. Jin Doyup, the director of Bloom Art Museum, nodded and gestured to Jin Yumi, who was waiting near the door, to see them off.

Jin Yumi, who had worked as a curator at Bloom Art Museum for a long time, understood immediately.

She led Gang Seok and Jo Dongbeom slowly down the corridor. Jo Dongbeom awkwardly bowed to Jin Doyup, glancing back.

Jin Doyup nodded slightly in return and relaxed his tense shoulders. Phew. His back, which had been stiff like a poorly fitting suit, finally relaxed.

At least it would be easier for Jin Yumi, who was familiar with them, to see them off. Thinking this, Jin Doyup turned back to his office.

Meanwhile, Jin Doyup's fists were trembling with tension.

It wasn't because of the meeting with Gang Seok.

It was due to the upcoming event.

His gaze cautiously fell on the calendar spread out on his desk.

December 16th.

The date, marked with several red circles, was the start of Art Basel in Miami Beach.

To submit the work on time, Gang Seok's piece needed to be completed by early December... Today was November 26th.

– "Yes. It's almost complete."

Of course, considering Gang Seok's always remarkable speed, it was likely that the work would be completed in time.

"Now, I just need to do my part."

Jin Doyup slowly walked to his desk, where a nameplate was placed, and looked out the window. From here, the entire view of Bloom Art Museum was clearly visible.

'...I've finally made it this far.'

Jin Doyup looked down at Bloom Art Museum with a sense of renewed emotion. His eyes were gazing at the 1990s, a time he had never seen.

The 1990s.

The glorious era when Korean galleries participated several times in the world's best and largest art fairs.

However, as the years passed into the 2010s and more recently, the number of Korean galleries participating in the top art fairs began to decline, relative to the country's power.

This was partly due to the increasing involvement of politics and corporations in the Korean art world.

Nonetheless, except for the top galleries, Korean galleries gradually lost their influence in the "Big Three" art fairs.

Of course, not all galleries lost their influence.

Even small galleries sometimes achieved remarkable success.

However, they struggled particularly in one of the Big Three, Art Basel.

Art Basel, the world's strongest art fair, with over 300 galleries and 4,000 artists participating, was a place where only one top Korean gallery, International Gallery, had consistently participated. Many other domestic galleries had failed to enter Art Basel.

'Our Bloom Art Museum has also failed to enter.'

The wall of Art Basel, which began in Basel, Switzerland, in 1970, was high and steep.

No wonder Jin Doyup's goal was to get Bloom Art Museum into Art Basel.

Entering Art Basel was a goal Jin Doyup had nurtured in his heart from the moment he became the director of Bloom Art Museum.

Therefore, this Art Basel in Miami Beach was particularly important to him.

He had to achieve a commendable performance at this Art Basel in Miami Beach.

If he could be selected as one of the top ten booths on the largest global art platform, Artsy, then given Bloom Art Museum's track record, there was a chance that the dream of entering Art Basel could be realized next year.

'I have to do well. I must do well this year.'

Jin Doyup had knocked on the door of Art Basel, which was particularly difficult for Korean galleries, several times.

In fact, the challenge to become one of the top ten booths at Art Basel in Miami Beach was not new.

He had continued to challenge and continued to fail.

It had been impossible until now.

'But this year, with Gang Seok... '

This time, it might be different.

The works he had seen flashed through Jin Doyup's mind.

, , , , , .

None of them were inferior to the works at Art Basel in Miami Beach.

Of course, to be selected as one of the top ten booths, a gallery needed not only attention but also to sell works and achieve high results, despite the booth fees and other costs... So, achieving the desired results with only Gang Seok's works, which he didn't intend to sell, was a challenge.

'Attention. That's all I need.'

Inflow was the best ingredient to create the highest value. He had to capture the people absorbed in seeing Gang Seok's works.

A sense of determination appeared on Jin Doyup's harmless face.

It was a desire for his dream.

He watched Gang Seok and his group walking towards the entrance of Bloom Art Museum, with the face of a young man who had once dreamed.

Wasn't the series of works supposed to be large installations?

If so, Jin Doyup needed to secure a large booth to place other things besides Gang Seok's works.

As much as possible, to the maximum.

Jin Doyup made a call to someone.

— Hello?

"Hello, Mr. President. This is Jin Doyup, the director of Bloom Art Museum."

— Director Jin! What's the matter? I was just about to contact you today! Wasn't it the day you had a meeting with our artist, Gang Seok?

Jin Doyup called Park Sunwoo, the youngest member of the San Gang Group's owner family and one of the directors of the San Gang Cultural Foundation.

He was informally called "President" because it was openly discussed that Park Sunwoo would eventually take over the cultural business of the San Gang Group, including the San Gang Cultural Foundation and Bloom Art Museum.

"Yes. I'm calling because I have a favor to ask related to that."

— ...A favor? What kind of favor?

Park Sunwoo's amused laugh came through the speaker. Jin Doyup, with a determined expression, spoke.

"I would like to discuss the details in person. Can we set up a meeting?"

While Gang Seok was preparing his work, he also had to take a gamble.

Since Gang Seok had decided to debut at Art Basel in Miami Beach with Jin Doyup's support, he needed to provide the best treatment.

Jin Doyup clenched his fist.

The trembling fist, which had been trembling, had now stopped.

.

.

.

The sky was filled with a red sunset.

Outside the entrance of Bloom Art Museum.

As soon as he parted ways with Curator Jin Yumi, Gang Seok muttered.

"This time, I'm quite looking forward to it."

"What... What are you looking forward to?"

"The things Bloom Art Museum will prepare."

"Huh?"

What does a gallery prepare when an artist goes to an art fair?

Since Jo Dongbeom had only run a glass studio, it was a strange concept to him, and he looked somewhat puzzled.

Gang Seok quietly looked at the director's office in the distance.

Despite the glass windows, the interior was not visible due to the sunset.

Nevertheless, Gang Seok looked at the director's office as if he could see everything clearly.

After a moment, Gang Seok straightened his body and smiled.

"Let's go."

"Go? Where?"

"To the studio."

He was referring to Jo Dongbeom's glass studio.

"Ah, yes! Let's go! Master, I'll show you the way!"

"Thank you."

Until November 30th, there were only four days left.

Gang Seok intended to complete the series of works in just four days.

* * * *

Four days passed in a flash.

Gang Seok was watching the fire in the kiln, the only source of light in the dark studio, slowly die out.

Jo Dongbeom, watching from the inner room, swallowed hard.

Gang Seok was sitting at the front, and Jo Dongbeom was sitting at the back, with the room's center as the dividing line.

Although everything in the room, which had been cleared and painted white, was swallowed by the darkness, as the fire in the kiln took longer to die out, Gang Seok's eyes began to adapt to the darkness.

As his eyes adapted to the darkness, the first thing he saw were the densely packed glass figures. More precisely, they were glass human sculptures with colors applied to the glass.

The sculptures were lined up so closely that the back of one sculpture's head and the nose of the next were almost touching, like the terracotta warriors in the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

Despite the spacious room, the sculptures were arranged in five rows of fifteen each, with smaller glass figures filling the gaps, making the space feel full.

The glass figures, which were hollow inside, were so realistic in proportion that Jo Dongbeom felt surrounded by people in the darkness.

Slowly.

Jo Dongbeom, who had been sitting to admire, moved his buttocks closer to Gang Seok. He could feel the intense heat from the kiln, as if Gang Seok had been working non-stop.

'He's only nineteen, but his stamina is really... or maybe it's because he's nineteen that he has so much energy.'

Jo Dongbeom recalled the hellish past four days. Gang Seok, who had been urging him to increase the kiln's heat, showed an indomitable level of stamina that made him seem more like a machine than a human.

It seemed that his daily gym routine was paying off.

Now that he thought about it, he had noticed that Gang Seok, who used to wear loose clothing, had grown bigger recently.

Was it the effect of exercise? Or had he grown taller?

Just as Jo Dongbeom was observing Gang Seok with a strange expression in the darkness,

"Mr. Jo, can you start preparing now?"

Gang Seok's voice came from the front.

"Ah! Yes, yes!"

He had a great task entrusted to him by his great master, Gang Seok.

While Gang Seok waited for the final piece to be completed in the best seat, Jo Dongbeom walked under the glass figures in a hunched position.

The glass figures were of various sizes and types, proportioned to real humans. A yellow glass figure modeled after a young girl was less than 100 cm tall, while a large red glass figure modeled after a basketball player was over 2 meters tall.

The colors were more vivid than paint, making the figures seem like plastic sculptures rather than glass.

'How does he do this?'

Using the same material and working in the same studio, the results were drastically different. He seemed to wield light and color like a magician.

As Jo Dongbeom thought this, he reached the end of the room.

Behind the glass sculptures.

He reached out to a row of LED lights attached to the wall.

These were the kind of LED stage lights used in TV studios.

The lights, mounted on stands like fans, could easily be adjusted in angle and direction using handles.

Holding the handle like a car steering wheel, Jo Dongbeom felt around with his other hand for the light's button.

As soon as he felt something, he pressed it.

Click.

The switch turned on, and white light filled the room. It was a pure white light, without a hint of yellow. The light gradually brightened, increasing in intensity.

Since there were multiple lights, Jo Dongbeom waddled over to turn them on one by one.

Click.

Click.

Click.

After turning on all the lights that illuminated the stage-like setup along the wall, Jo Dongbeom looked straight ahead. He wanted to see the completed scene in one glance, as the work required light to be fully appreciated.

To avoid accidentally looking at the empty front, like a classroom blackboard, Jo Dongbeom fixed his gaze and moved to turn on the next light.

Continuously, without a break, he turned on the lights, not even thinking about turning his head. When he turned on the last light,

Squeak.

A scraping sound was heard, and the angle of the last light dropped. Jo Dongbeom instinctively grabbed the handle and raised the light's angle.

At the same time, he moved his mouth to report to Gang Seok that the lights were on.

"Master, I've turned them all on... Wow. Wow! Wow, this is really...!"

His report turned into a gradient of admiration.

In the space bathed in a bright light that could rival any other, the shadows of over a hundred glass human sculptures cast on the white wall created a single landscape.

It was a sunset.

The sunset was projected on the white wall like a beam projector.

A beautiful landscape created by over a hundred glass humans.

Jo Dongbeom was amazed.

Having seen the light passing through stained glass in churches since childhood, he knew that shadows cast by glass could have vivid colors. But he had never seen such vivid colors.

It was as if paint was being sprayed with light, filling the wall with a landscape like an oil painting.

The shadows of the glass sculptures, which were colored, overlapped to create a picture.

Or, could it be called a picture?

The shapes of the clouds were as clear and beautiful as a photograph.

'Now I understand why he made those bumpy patterns inside the glass humans...!'

It was like the bumpy patterns on a Del Monte glass bottle. Why did he deliberately leave such patterns? It was to create clouds by overlapping the patterns, not just the shadows.

The patterns cast shadows, and the overlapping and merging of these patterns created clouds that looked like they were floating in the sky.

Whether intentional or not, the parts where the light did not reach were in shadow, creating the effect of the dark shadows of flat buildings.

Seven-tenths of the white wall were sky, and the remaining three-tenths were the shadows of buildings.

It was vast.

And wide.

Looking at the vast sunset, Jo Dongbeom thought,

If this were seen in a larger space, it would be incredibly beautiful.

He wanted to see it.

'Should I go to Miami Beach?'

While having such a silly thought, he looked straight ahead.

The sunset was created by illuminating the back of over a hundred glass humans, so it was very colorful.

There were several glass humans with a pink hue, so the pink on the wall was not just one shade.

From a pink that resembled a rose to a peach-like pink, a light pink like cherry blossoms, and a pink like the feathers of a flamingo.

Above them, a crimson like a persimmon, a crimson like a marigold, and a crimson like fox fur.

A red like an apple, a vivid red like red lipstick, and a blood-red.

A purple like a jacaranda, a purple like velvet, and a purple like amethyst.

Above them, sky blue, blue, navy, black, and white, and so on.

Looking at the landscape created by the overlapping of dozens of glass humans, Jo Dongbeom slowly stepped back. The farther he stood, the more breathtaking the light landscape became.

The real sunset couldn't be this vivid.

Finally, feeling his back against the wall, Jo Dongbeom held his breath.

– 'It's nothing special...'

– 'It's nothing special?'

– 'I just wanted to compare my work with the sunset in Miami Beach.'

Four days ago, Gang Seok's words echoed in Jo Dongbeom's ears.

This is it.

He wanted to compare this scene with the sunset in Miami Beach.

Jo Dongbeom, looking at the beautiful light landscape that seemed artificially created, muttered.

"– It's just a hunch, but it feels exactly like... the Michelangelo Hill in Florence, Italy. It would be perfect if there was majestic music... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no