WE LOST KIM YONGMOON

South Korean ceramicist Kim Yongmoon, who taught at Hacettepe University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Ceramics Department since 2010, has passed away after succumbing to cancer, which he had been battling for some time. Yongmoon, who considered Turkiye his homeland, was laid to rest in Karsiyaka Foreigners Cemetery, as per his will.

Korean ceramic artist Kim Yongmoon, one of the lecturers at the Department of Ceramics and Glass at Hacettepe University Faculty of Fine Arts, lost his battle with cancer on July 3 and passed away at the age of 69. The Department of Ceramics and Glass, where he taught for 15 years, bid farewell to Kim Yongmoon with a ceremony held in front of the Macsabal Wood Kiln he built. Following the ceremony attended by his Turkish and Korean friends, his funeral was held at the Karsiyaka Foreigners Cemetery. The loss of Yongmoon, who was buried in Turkiye, which he considered his homeland, caused great sorrow in the ceramics community.

A great master of pottery, Kim Yongmoon has been trying to introduce bowls, which is called “macsabal” in Korean culture and is a part of life, to the world through symposiums he has organized for more than 30 years. He has opened more than 50 solo exhibitions between 1998 and 2020. He has organized the Macsabal symposiums, which he created, 24 times in Korea, China and Turkiye. He also built the kiln where the works of contemporary artists who come together for the Macsabal symposiums held annually at Hacettepe University are ceremonially fired.

Yongmoon’s first impressions of Turkish ceramics were the ceramics and terracotta figurines in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, and he was very impressed by them. The artist not only made bowls that he shaped on the pottery wheel, but also drew multicolored nature paintings on ceramic tiles and abstract nature patterns with black ink on traditional Korean paper. Kim Yongmoon, who we can call a modern shaman, had a deep connection with nature, and this was reflected in all his works. He emphasized the connection between nature and humans in his performances from time to time.

HU Ceramics Department Head Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mutlu Baskaya emphasized that his friend Kim Yongmoon was a working artist who constantly produced new ideas and works, and said, “I think that having a new idea every day and his desire to realize these ideas gave him an advantage in his fight against cancer and that he lived longer than expected. He had a personality that could not be comfortable without realizing his new ideas and could not be happy without working. He was fun and would work with pleasure, but he was very serious when doing his job and teaching.”