100th Anniversary Exhibition of Korea's First Modern Art Group 'Seohwa Association' Opens

Lee Doyoung 'Seonmyeonsansu' (Photo source: Yehwarang)

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] In 1918, during the Japanese colonial period, 13 calligraphers and painters including An Jung-sik founded the Seohwa Association, Korea's first modern art organization. The aim was to continue the legacy of Korean calligraphy and painting through nurturing the next generation. However, their activities were not easy. Due to the aftermath of the March 1st Movement the following year and the successive deaths of the association presidents An Jung-sik and Jo Seok-jin, the association could not continue its activities. The first official exhibition was held three years later, on April 1, 1921.

At that time, the exhibition was a modern public exhibition held a year earlier than the Joseon Art Exhibition (Joseon Mijeon), an official exhibition hosted by the Governor-General of Joseon. The first exhibition, held at the Central High School, featured about 100 works. Special exhibitions of works by Anpyeong Daegun, Jeong Seon, and Kim Jeong-hui were held to express the spirit of "learning from the past to create the new" (法古創新), and selected works by non-members who passed the Seohwa Association’s screening were also displayed. The exhibition attracted about 2,300 visitors over three days.

Exactly 100 years after the first Seohwa Association exhibition, on April 1, 2021, a commemorative exhibition will be held in Seoul. Yeh Gallery will hold an exhibition titled "Hwe(?), Things We Want to Protect" from May 1 to 24 at its headquarters in Garosu-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

Kim Bang-eun, CEO of Yeh Gallery, said, "At that time, the Seohwa Association also taught talented people from various regions for free if they wanted to learn art," adding, "During the desperate times when our art seemed to be disappearing under Japanese colonial rule, nurturing the next generation was the top priority in running the association."

This exhibition will feature works by founding members of the Seohwa Association such as Simjeon An Jung-sik, Sorim Jo Seok-jin, Cheongun Kang Jin-hee, Wichang Oh Se-chang, Haegang Kim Gyu-jin, Uhyang Jeong Dae-yu, Soho Kim Eung-won, and Gwanjae Lee Do-young, as well as works by artists who learned painting through the association, including Idang Kim Eun-ho, Sojeong Byun Gwan-sik, Jeongjae Choi Woo-seok, and Sujae Lee Han-bok.

Additionally, the exhibition will simultaneously introduce works by photographer Lee Sang-hyun. His representative work, "Spring of Joseon (2008)," is an adaptation of a photograph taken by Hermann Sander, a military attach? at the German Embassy in Japan in 1906, who surveyed the battlefields of the Russo-Japanese War in Joseon and Manchuria under orders from the Berlin Army General Staff. Lee Sang-hyun combined this photo with peach blossoms symbolizing the Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land (몽유도원). The artist said, "I created an imaginary spring," adding, "However, the peach blossoms are artificial flowers, not real ones, which implies that utopia is ultimately fictional."

Sanghyun Lee, Chosun's Spring, digital c-print, 110x172cm, 2008 (Photo by Yeh Gallery)

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