Gwangju City Museum of Art, 30th Anniversary Exhibition of Gwangju Art Archive

Published 20 Apr.2022 15:59(KST)

Updated 16 Aug.2025 16:48(KST)

'Exhibition of "The Magician of Colors, Im Jiksun"'

The late artist Im Jiksun's work "Flowers and Women."

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] The Gwangju Museum of Art is holding an art archive exhibition titled "The Magician of Color, Im Jik-soon" in the main exhibition hall of the museum until June 26th to commemorate its 30th anniversary.

"The Magician of Color, Im Jik-soon" exhibition is organized to reexamine the artistic career of Im Jik-soon, a representative color painter of Korea, and to establish its meaning and value.

This exhibition features a total of 135 works, including 75 paintings and 60 drawings, focusing on representative works from different periods of the late artist Im Jik-soon. It covers key works from the early 1950s to the 1990s, making it highly significant.

Additionally, an archive that allows visitors to explore the trajectory of the artist's life, including artistic will and creative struggles, is also on display.

The archive includes over 70 items such as the artist’s photographs, exhibition guestbooks and leaflets, newspaper articles, and letters.

Interviews with Im Jik-soon’s disciples, including Western painters Hwang Young-sung, Choi Young-hoon, and Jung Song-gyu, as well as a 1982 KBS "TV Art Museum" video, are also introduced to provide a multidimensional perspective on the artist’s work.

Im graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Ilmon Art School in 1942, won an award at the Seonjeon (Joseon Art Exhibition) the following year, and after returning to Korea, taught at Incheon Girls' High School, Seoul Girls' Commercial High School, and Sookmyung Girls' High School. He received the Minister of Education Award and the Presidential Award at the National Art Exhibition for works such as "Studio" and "Seated Figure."

While serving as a professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Chosun University, he nurtured prominent disciples who have led the Korean art world. He passed away in 1996 due to heart disease.

This exhibition is organized around Im Jik-soon’s representative works and changes in his working methods by period, divided into "Immersed in Color" (from the 1950s to early 1970s), "A Brilliant Assembly of Colors" (mid-1970s to early 1980s), and "Beyond Visual Truth, Inner Harmony" (mid-1980s to 1990s).

Director Jeon Seung-bo said, “This exhibition was prepared to mark the 100th anniversary of Im Jik-soon’s birth and to reexamine the artist’s career, which blossomed during the heyday of Honam figurative painting. We hope that this exhibition will lead to the systematic organization of archive materials on Im Jik-soon and foster more in-depth and multifaceted research on the artist.”