[Gallery Walk] Jang Ukjin's 'Family' Returns After 60 Years from a Dusty Storage Room

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art 'The Most Serious Confession: Jang Ukjin Retrospective'
Over 270 Works Including Oil Paintings, Ink Drawings, Cover Art, and Illustrations Exhibited
'Family' Found in Japan and Final Work 'Magpie and Village' Revealed for the First Time
Includes 6 Pieces from Jang Ukjin Enthusiast RM's Collection... Until February 12 Next Year

“The artwork was waiting for me.”

Curator Bae Won-jeong of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art recalled the moment she first discovered Jang Uk-jin’s ‘Family’ in the atelier of a Japanese collector. Entering the old atelier by cutting through dense bushes with a sickle, she was drawn to an old wardrobe in the attic on the second floor of a building without electricity. Struggling to open the wardrobe door halfway, she squeezed inside and turned on her phone’s flashlight. Among the items covered in dust, a small frame tilted deep inside caught her eye. When she took the frame out of the wardrobe, the encounter with the artwork, which had been passed down only through stories for 60 years, was made possible.

Photo taken at the time of the discovery of 'Family' (1955). Provided by Curator Bae Won-jeong

A retrospective exhibition covering the 60-year artistic career of Jang Uk-jin, a master of Korean Western painting, has opened at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Deoksugung. Jang Uk-jin, considered part of the second generation of Western-style painters alongside Lee Jung-seop, Kim Whanki, Park Soo-keun, and Yoo Youngkuk, is classified as a painter who pioneered Korean modernism. His contemporaries, who stood shoulder to shoulder with him, have each organized their artistic worlds through large-scale retrospectives marking their 100th birth anniversaries.

Although the ‘Jang Uk-jin Retrospective’ is held after his 100th birth anniversary, it is regarded as the final exhibition that not only uncovers and reveals his cherished works but also organizes the artistic world of the second generation of Korean Western painters.

Jang Uk-jin, 'Magpie', 1958, oil on canvas, 40×31cm,
[Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art]

This retrospective exhibition comprehensively covers Jang Uk-jin’s artistic life spanning over 60 years, from his school days in the 1920s to his death in 1990. It showcases more than 270 works including oil paintings, ink drawings, illustrations, and ceramic paintings, from ‘Family’ (1955), the first family portrait discovered by curator Bae in Japan, to his last work ‘Magpie and Village’ (1990).

The exhibition title, ‘The Most Sincere Confession,’ is taken from Jang Uk-jin’s statement, “There is no me as precise as my paintings.” As revealed in the preface of his book Atelier by the River, the artist devoted himself to creation with honest self-confession, sparing no effort to carve away the unnecessary in pursuit of truth.

'Gajokdo' (1972, oil paint on canvas, 7.5×14.8 cm) [Photo courtesy of Yangju City Jang Uk-jin Art Museum]

The exhibition space is organized into three periods of Jang Uk-jin’s artistic world: △Youth (teens to twenties) △Middle Age (thirties to fifties) △Old Age (sixties to seventies). It presents a three-dimensional view of how the themes and formal consciousness he pursued were formed and transformed over time.

The archive displayed alongside the works introduces newly revealed early activities of the artist, including his involvement in art groups and exhibitions during the Japanese colonial period and after the Korean War, as well as research findings that correct errors in previously known titles and chronologies of his works.

The section titled ‘Living in My Own Resistance’ opens with a large number of works from Jang Uk-jin’s youth, from 1917 to 1960, which are little known to the public. It features works such as ‘Gongginori’ (Air Ball Game), painted in 1938 when he was in the 5th grade at Yangjeong High School, ‘Still Life,’ which won an award at the 7th All Joseon Male and Female Student Exhibition hosted by Dong-A Ilbo in the same year, and ‘Girl,’ which was selected at the 19th Joseon Art Exhibition in 1940.

The artwork 'Jinjinmyo' is titled by Jang Uk-jin himself using his wife's Buddhist name. Private collection. [Photo by National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art]

In middle age, the artist infused his works with Buddhist worldview and philosophical reflections. ‘Jinjinmyo’ (1970) depicts his wife, Lee Soon-gyeong, as a bodhisattva. Watching his wife praying at their home in Myeongnyun-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Jang Uk-jin was inspired with a ‘painting idea’ (hwah-sang) and immediately headed to his studio in Deokso, dedicating a full week solely to creating the work. After completing the painting, he reportedly fell seriously ill for a while after presenting it to his wife.

Throughout his life, Jang Uk-jin repeatedly portrayed magpies, trees, the sun, and the moon in his works. To him, the magpie was like an alter ego, the tree symbolized the universe embracing the entire world, and the sun and moon represented eternal mediators transcending time and space.

One of his representative works from his 40s, ‘Tree and Bird’ (1958), was exhibited at the ‘Korean Modern Painting Exhibition’ held at the World House Gallery in New York in February 1958, playing a role in introducing the beauty of Korean painting to the United States. ‘Village’ (1984) showcases Jang Uk-jin’s characteristic symmetrical composition and meticulous formal structure, captivating visitors. His last work, ‘Magpie and Village’ (1990), is also being revealed to the public for the first time, drawing significant attention.

Family photo of the late artist Jang Wook-jin, 1964, private collection. [Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art]

The exhibition also includes six pieces from the collection of RM, leader of BTS, known as a fan of Jang Uk-jin. However, RM reportedly requested the museum to keep the details of his collection confidential to avoid undue focus solely on his pieces.

A representative of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art explained that this exhibition will provide a comprehensive review of Jang Uk-jin, a leading figure in modern and contemporary Korean art, and complement the accumulated academic research on him, offering an opportunity for a more complete evaluation of his artistic world. The exhibition runs until February 12 of next year.

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