The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 3, 2026

A steel and wire sculpture depicts an extremely elongated humanoid figure suspended by a thin wire. A dark-brown cylindrical head sits atop a long, tapering neck. Their narrow torso features a smooth, spindle-shaped, dark-brown center with needle-like arms pointing straight down. Below, a flared base leads to two long, parallel legs. Tiny, rounded feet terminate the spindly silhouette as it hangs motionless against a neutral, vertical gradient.

Standing

1993

Kim Jongku

(Korean, b. 1963)
Korea
Solid steel and wire
height: 168 cm (66 1/8 in.); Diameter: 8 cm (3 1/8 in.)
Gift of Celeste Myers 2024.42
© Kim Jongku
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Instead of the most common casting technique, Kim chose grinding a block of steel.

Description

The artist ground a block of steel to sculpt human figures. Instead of the most common casting technique, Kim chose grinding to demonstrate intense physical labor that deeply involved civilization.

Standing was one of the three sculptures Kim presented to an outdoor exhibition in London in 1997, but all three of them were stolen once. While the other two were long lost, this work was fortuitously recovered. Kim recounts that traumatic incident as his moment to rethink steel powder, the leftover of grinding, as the primary media for his later works. In this sense, Standing bears a poignant moment of the artist’s departure for new artistic possibilities.
  • 1993–2022
    Collection of the Artist
    2022–2023
    (Artstellar Gallery, Seoul, South Korea, sold to Celeste Myers)
    2023–2024
    Celeste Myers, Hudson, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2024–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Material and Immaterial in Korean Modern and Contemporary Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 28, 2023-February 25, 2024).
  • {{cite web|title=Standing|url=false|author=Kim Jongku|year=1993|access-date=03 October 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2024.42