Highlighting Unsung Contributors to Korean Modern Industrial Art... National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art 'Modern Design' Exhibition

First Public Exhibition of Archives Donated by Han Hong-taek in 2021 and Lee Wan-seok in 2022
Featuring Over 190 Works Including Paintings, Posters, Drawings, Photographs, and Videos

Han Hong-taek, Liberation, 1945, color on paper, 30.5 × 22 cm. Collection of the Art Research Center, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] “No matter how capitalist society may be, advertising art must combine truthful content with creative designs, and the advertising materials should elevate the dignity of the pages or spaces where they are displayed and enhance the aesthetic sensibility of the public who enjoy them.”

In the 1950s, when even the concept of design was vague, there was a person who pioneered industrial art in this land and emphasized the social responsibility of design. Han Hongtaek (1916?1994), known as a pioneer of Korean design, was a first-generation industrial artist in Korea who raised a voice of self-reflection against the exaggerated and plagiarized advertising art rampant in newspapers and magazines at the time and called for designers' ethical awareness. His paintings, posters, and drawings, donated to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in 2021, accelerated research on modern and contemporary design linking art and industry during the post-liberation period of modernization and industrialization for national reconstruction. Along with this, the archive donation of industrial artist Lee Wanseok (1915?1969), who was active in the same era, was added, and a planned exhibition to reveal these was prepared.

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art will hold “Modern Design: Art of Living, Industry, and Diplomacy” from the 23rd of this month until March 26 next year at the Gwacheon branch of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

The exhibition was organized to explore the emergence and development of Korean modern and contemporary design from various perspectives, centering on Han Hongtaek’s works and archives donated and collected by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in 2021, and Lee Wanseok’s archives donated in 2022, along with works by contemporaneous artists and various materials.

Artist Han Hong-taek. Photo by National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

Han Hongtaek led the founding of the first design organization, the Joseon Industrial Artists Association (currently the Korea Industrial Artists Association), immediately after liberation in 1945, together with Kwon Younghyu, Eom Doman, Yoo Yunsang, Lee Byunghyun, Lee Wanseok, Jo Neungsik, Jo Byeongdeok, Hong Namgeuk, and Hong Sunmun. These pioneers worked across fields before art and design were distinguished as separate domains as they are today, newly defining the field of “industrial art” and playing a key role in laying the foundation for the development of the Korean design world, which was a barren land at the time.

The title “Modern Design” is taken from the “2nd Han Hongtaek Modern Design Exhibition” held in 1958, recalling the era when the term design was not yet generalized and translated vocabulary such as pattern, industrial art, applied art, decorative art, and life art were mixed and used.

This exhibition displays Han Hongtaek’s archives and various forms of design work such as packaging, book covers, and patterns that offer a glimpse into his proposals and experiments to establish his position as an industrial artist.

Additionally, through photographic and video archives recording various signboards and clothing styles in urban landscapes of the 1950s and 1960s, visitors have the opportunity to trace the visual culture of the era embedded in Korean daily life during the national reconstruction period from multiple angles.

Exhibition view of 'Modern Design: Art for Living, Industry, and Diplomacy.' Photo by National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

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