Kim Daljin Museum, '100 Years of Korean Painting Special Exhibition' at Ulsan Culture and Arts Center

Exhibition of 60 Works by 55 Artists and 100 Archive Pieces from May 22 to June 13

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] The Kim Daljin Art Archive Museum will hold a special exhibition titled "100 Years of Korean Painting" from the 22nd to June 13th at the Ulsan Culture and Arts Center's Exhibition Hall 1.

This "100 Years of Korean Painting Special Exhibition" is an invited special exhibition by the Ulsan Culture and Arts Center, based on the "History of 20th Century Korean Painting" exhibition held at the Kim Daljin Museum in 2017. It is organized into four parts: Part 1 - Tradition of Korean Painting, Part 2 - Enlightenment of Korean Painting, Part 3 - Expansion of Korean Painting, and Part 4 - Testimony of the Archive.

The museum explained that although Korean painting experienced its peak boom in the 1970s, it has since declined due to changes in residential culture caused by the spread of apartments, with Western paintings occupying household walls. The exhibition was prepared to review the modern and contemporary art history of Korean painting and contribute to its new leap forward.

Sixty works by 55 artists including Ji Unyoung (1852?1935), Go Hee-dong, Lee Sang-beom, Park Saeng-gwang, Cheon Kyung-ja, Song Su-nam, Lee Jong-sang, Hwang Chang-bae, Kim Ho-seok, Kim Seon-du, and Lim Tae-gyu (born 1976) will be displayed.

Displayed works include Go Hee-dong’s "Gapsin Jeophailhwa," depicting the summer of 1944 when a great flood occurred, Kim Eun-ho’s famous gongpil chaesaek painting "Seungmu," Kim Young-gi’s "Dawn’s Advance 6," capturing the movement of cattle herds and advocating the term Korean painting in the late 1950s, first-generation female painter Geum Dong-won’s 1962 Hong Kong International Painting Salon award-winning work "Eum," and Cho Hwan’s large-scale minjung art piece "Mincho - Sea People." Other notable works include Byun Kwan-sik’s "Naegumgang Bodeok Cave," Kim Jeong-hyun’s "Buyeo Subukjeong View," Lee Young-chan’s realistic landscape "Baekdusan Cheonji," who won the National Art Exhibition President’s Award, Hwang Chang-bae’s "Dokdo," and Lee Ho-shin’s "Unjusa," famous for the Cheonbul Cheontap in Hwasun, Jeonnam.

Go Hee-dong 'Gapsin Jeopha Ilhwa'
[Photo by Kim Dal-jin Art Museum]

Lee Young-chan 'Baekdusan Cheonji' [Photo by Kim Dal-jin Art Museum]

One hundred archive items such as handwritten letters by Korean painters, photographs, art books, pamphlets, and posters will also be exhibited.

These include a 1971 letter handwritten by Lee Ungno requesting exhibited works from his student Geum Dong-won, a 1979 postcard sent by Kim Ki-chang to Shim Kyung-ja from Italy expressing his admiration after seeing works by Michelangelo and Da Vinci, and a New Year's card sent by Cheon Kyung-ja to Yoo Jun-sang. Educational materials such as Haegang Kim Gyu-jin’s 1910s "Mokrancheop," "New Edition Haegang Bamboo Book," and Lee Ungno’s 1955 "Appreciation and Techniques of Oriental Painting" will also be on display.

Visitors can also view pamphlets and catalogs from major exhibitions such as the 1960 "1st Mukrim Exhibition," which pursued the plasticity and abstraction of Korean painting, the 1968 "Light of Korea, France Exhibition," the 1971 "Six Oriental Painters Exhibition," the 1986 "100 Years of Korean Painting," and the 1987 "100 Years of Modern Korean Painting: 1850-1950." Forty-three personal art books by An Jung-sik, Park Saeng-gwang, Cheon Kyung-ja, and Hwang Chang-bae, photographs including the 1958 National Art Exhibition opening ceremony, Kim Ki-chang sketching in Vietnam, and 1960s portraits of Cheon Kyung-ja, as well as twelve posters from exhibitions such as the 1996 "60th Anniversary of Husohoe," 2003 "Park Saeng-gwang Spain Exhibition," and 2017 "Lee Ungno France Exhibition" are also available for viewing.

Kim Daljin, director of the museum and planner of the exhibition, said, "Through this exhibition, I hope to deepen the historical understanding of our Korean painting and serve as a foundation for Korean painting to be newly established and revived."

New Year's card sent by Cheon Kyung-ja to Yoo Jun-sang, estimated to be from the 1990s
Photo by Kim Dal-jin Art Museum

Letter Lee Ungno sent to Geum Dongwon, May 4, 1971
[Photo by Kim Daljin Art Museum]

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.