1980s Women Artists' Art: 'Seoul Museum of Art Herstory Review' Exhibition

Seoul Museum of Art Seosomun Main Building 'Herstory Review' Exhibition View [Photo by Seoul Museum of Art]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] The Seoul Museum of Art is hosting the Ghana Art Collection curated permanent exhibition 'Herstory Review' at the Seoul Museum of Art Seosomun Main Building.

'Herstory Review' is a women's art exhibition set against the politically and socially turbulent 1980s, offering a perspective on the personal and social views intertwined with the history and everyday lives of female artists of that time. The exhibited works are diverse, including paintings, Korean traditional paintings, photography, installations, crafts, drawings & prints, showcasing a total of 24 pieces from the Seoul Museum of Art collection, including 11 pieces from the Ghana Art Collection.

The Ghana Art Collection consists of 200 works donated to the Seoul Museum of Art in 2001 by Ghana Art CEO Lee Ho-jae, encompassing works of people's art and realism that actively reflect the social realities of Korea in the 1980s and 1990s. The Seoul Museum of Art held permanent exhibitions of the Ghana Art Collection, including 'Ghana Art Collection Anthology' in 2016 and 'Regrets of the Era' in 2018.

The 1980s marked the emergence of full-fledged feminist art in Korean art, with female artists from the people's art movement beginning to directly address women's realities through exhibitions. This exhibition presents works by those who explored and practiced women's issues within the context of people's art, an art movement aimed at social transformation.

Han Aegyu 'The Woman Who Occupied the House', 1989, 43×65×37 cm, Celadon Clay, Terracotta, Chamotte, Donated by Lee Ho-jae of Gana Art, 2001
Photo by Seoul Museum of Art

Works by Kim Won-sook, Park In-kyung, Song Mae-hee, Song Hyun-sook, Ahn Sung-geum, and Han Ae-gyu reveal their thoughts on society and personal conflicts encountered in daily life, such as the roles of women defined within the family, awareness of the chaotic era, and hints at female oppression.

The 1986 exhibition 'From the Class to One,' the annual 'Women and Reality' exhibitions held from 1987 to 1994, and the 1988 women's poetry and painting exhibition 'Let's Open Our Floodgates: The Meeting of Women's Liberation Poetry and Paintings' are major women's art exhibitions discussed in terms of women's liberation movements and cultural dimensions. Artists such as Kim In-soon, Kim Jin-sook, Yoon Suk-nam, Jung Jung-yeop, and Park Young-sook, who participated in these exhibitions, show different aspects from the female artists of the Ghana Art Collection, and many related works are introduced in this exhibition.

Explorations of the self and concerns about identity are more actively found in the works of overseas Korean female artists like Min Young-soon and Yoon Jin-mi during the same period. As immigrant women from non-Western countries settled in Western societies, they address the diasporic sentiment under overlapping conditions of otherness, dealing with race, gender, nation, history, and memory, linking identity as a major theme in their work.

The exhibition operates by advance reservation and admission is allowed through electronic entry log (QR code) verification on the day of the visit (maximum 20 people per session). Citizens wishing to view the exhibition should make a reservation in advance through the Seoul city public service reservation site and visit the museum on the reserved date.

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