Past Exhibitions
This year marks the 60th anniversary of Lee Ungno’s relocation from Korea to France. In commemoration, Korean Artists in Paris explores the meaning of the ‘move to France’ for Korean modern artists of Lee’s time. For the last several years in France, the work of Korean expatriate artists in Paris has been reviewed in the context of Korean modern art’s early stages in such exhibitions as Seoul-Paris-Seoul (2015~16) and Lee Ungno: the Man of Crowds (2017) at the Cernuschi Museum, and Donation Lee Ungno (2017) at the Pompidou. In the same spirit, Korean Artists in Paris brings together works by ten Korean artists, illuminating the ways in which their individual pilgrimages to Paris came to shape the landscape of Korean modern art.
This exhibition examines the ways in which Korean abstraction acquired its modernity and became the mainstream art movement in Korea in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Among these ten artists, the couple Lee Ungno and Park Inkyung were not only active in the Paris art scene but also traveled to other European countries like Germany and Switzerland to exhibit their work—Park Inkyung lives and works in Paris to this day. Their impact on the Korean art world is comparable with that of Korean modern art pioneers such as Kim Whanki, Kim Heung Sou, Nam Kwan, and Kwon Ok Yon. They influenced one another, and their interactions led to the birth of Korean abstract art. Han Mook and Rhee Seundja, who continued to work in Paris until their death, left us a wide range of wonderful art references; Park Inkyung, Bang Haija, and Kim Tschang-yeul continue to do so. In this sense, Korean Artists in Paris is an opportunity to trace the origins of various artistic idioms in contemporary Korean art and form an understanding of the intimate relationship between Paris and the Korean modern art scene.
