Beth McKillop¡¯s Interview on Kyungjo Roe

Beth McKillop
Deputy Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum

¡®The Korean¡¯ KBS, Korea
Interview at Level 6, Ceramics Gallery
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, U.K.
March 2014

¡°Roe Kyungjo¡¯s work has become known for its beautiful way in which it brings a modern and a very elegant sensibility to Korean ceramic history. The Victoria and Albert Museum is pleased that somebody as Roe Kyungjo entered our collection and when we redisplayed our beautiful ceramics galleries above the city of London in Kensington his was one of the works we chosen to put into display. Every country has its own ceramic tradition. Korea¡¯s tradition is quite particular and quite special. Roe Kyungjo¡¯s work here in our display tells a story about technology about technique about clay and about one man¡¯s very very devoted pursuit of special aesthetics. Roe Kyungjo¡¯s work uses clay in a very different and exciting way. I think this must refer to his sensibility as a painter where he uses contrasting qualities and spaces in the clay to make almost pictorial compositions. I have been lucky to see his studio near Seoul and I really understand his deep love of Korea¡¯s ceramics and his deep scholarship and passion for Korea¡¯s older ceramics and it is really great to see that coming through from past and present.¡±