Western Painting Master Late Yoon Jung-sik's Family Donates Works to Seongbuk-gu... Establishment of 'Yoon Jung-sik Art Museum'

500 Works and Materials by the Late Artist Yun Joong-sik (1913?2012) Donated Free of Charge

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Seongbuk-gu (Mayor Seungro Lee) and the family of the late artist Yoon Joongsik held a “Donation Agreement Ceremony for the Works of the Late Yoon Joongsik” at Seongbuk-gu Office on the 11th.

Representing the family, son Daekyung Yoon and daughter-in-law Youngok Ryu attended the ceremony, along with Seongbuk-gu Mayor Seungro Lee, Seongbuk Cultural Foundation CEO Geonwang Lee, and Seongbuk Art Museum Director Bora Kim.

The main points of the agreement include ▲ the free donation of 500 works and materials by the late Yoon Joongsik ▲ stipulations for the contracting parties ▲ acceptance of the donation in accordance with the Seongbuk Art Museum ordinance ▲ efforts to honor the value of artist Yoon Joongsik, among other matters.

The donation of works was in accordance with the late Yoon Joongsik’s will, reflecting the artist’s special affection for Seongbuk. Born in Pyongyang, artist Yoon Joongsik (March 27, 1913 ? July 3, 2012) moved south after the Korean War and lived in the Seongbuk area for over 50 years, dedicating much effort to the development of the Seongbuk Art Museum and the Seongbuk Scholarship Foundation, contributing significantly to the local cultural and artistic advancement.

In particular, he donated works for the establishment of the Seongbuk Art Museum, the first registered art museum opened by a local government in 2009. In 2012, he held the first centenarian exhibition (Sangsu, 上壽, 100 years old) by a living domestic artist, helping to establish the status of the Seongbuk Art Museum.

Seongbuk-gu is a special area where many modern and contemporary Korean artists have lived. Since the opening of the Seongbuk Art Museum, efforts have continued to preserve, research, and widely promote works by major local artists. This represents an important role of public art museums in preserving regional assets, and the Seongbuk Art Museum serves as an advanced example of a local public art museum.

The 500 works and materials being donated include 71 major oil paintings by Yoon Joongsik, as well as historically valuable works such as drawings documenting the Korean War, making the collection significant in content as well.

Born in 1913, the late Yoon Joongsik holds an important position in the history of modern Korean art with his unique painting style. Considering the scarcity of modern Korean art materials and insufficient research, the fact that most of Yoon Joongsik’s works, a key modern Western-style painter, will be returned to a local public art museum is expected to provide an opportunity for more detailed research on modern art. Additionally, it will form an important foundation for citizens’ cultural and artistic enjoyment.

Following the agreement ceremony, the Seongbuk Art Museum plans to hold a 10th anniversary memorial exhibition for Yoon Joongsik titled “Hoehyang (懷鄕) Exhibition” from March 30 to July 3. Also, in the second half of this year, a special exhibition focusing on Yoon Joongsik and other important contemporary Western-style painters related to him is being prepared. Seongbuk-gu intends to make various efforts to preserve, research, and utilize the donated works starting with this.

Seongbuk-gu has already opened the Seongbuk Choi Manrin Art Museum last year, utilizing local assets and operating it as a model. It also received a large donation of works and collections from artist Seo Seok last year and is currently promoting the construction of the Seo Seok Art Museum. The donation of Yoon Joongsik’s works is significant in that it establishes a research foundation for the three basic genres of modern and contemporary Korean art: sculpture centered on Choi Manrin, Oriental painting centered on Seo Seok, and Western painting centered on Yoon Joongsik.

On this day, Seongbuk-gu presented a letter of appreciation to the family for providing Seongbuk residents with opportunities to enjoy culture and arts through the donation of works. The family, in return, presented an art book of Yoon Joongsik’s works.

Daekyung Yoon, son of the late artist Yoon Joongsik and representative of the family, said, “We decided to donate the works to Seongbuk, where Yoon Joongsik lived for over 50 years and loved deeply, believing it is meaningful to return the works created there back to Seongbuk.”

Seungro Lee, Mayor of Seongbuk-gu, said, “This agreement is meaningful for both Seongbuk-gu and the family of the late Yoon Joongsik. Going forward, Seongbuk-gu will build a cultural and artistic sanctuary that strives to preserve and establish the value of modern and contemporary Korean art as a focal point.” He expressed deep gratitude to the family for donating all the works to Seongbuk-gu.

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