iMMCA DeoksugungJeong-dong, Jung-gu
Korean Artists in France 1950s-1970s
Marking 140 years of Korea-France diplomatic ties, tracing roughly 50 Korean artists, including Lee Ufan and Kim Tschang-yeul, who worked in Paris from the 1950s to 1970s.
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Preview: written before the show opened
The story starts in 1925, when Lee Chongwoo became the first Korean artist to arrive in Paris. Most of it happens after the Korean War, when a wave of Korean artists followed him there, treating Paris as the capital of modern art at the moment it was competing with New York to stay that.
About 50 artists fill the Deoksugung building, across Galleries 1 and 2 on the second floor and 3 and 4 on the third. The names run from Lee Ungno, Nam Kwan and Rhee Seundja to Kim Tschang-yeul and Lee Ufan. The Korean title, Strangers in Paris, is the angle: how each of them worked as a foreigner, and how their art changed with it. The show marks 140 years of Korea-France diplomatic relations.
You enter through Daehanmun, the palace's main gate, which closes at 20:00. So for the free Wednesday and Saturday late openings (18:00 to 21:00), arrive before eight.
Editor's pick
Lee Ungno, Nam Kwan, Rhee Seundja, Kim Tschang-yeul and Lee Ufan are among about 50 Korean artists who went to postwar Paris as outsiders. The Korean title, Strangers in Paris, sets the angle: how working as a foreigner changed the art.
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Image credits
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- Korean Artists in France 1950s-1970sCourtesy of MMCA Deoksugung
- GanaArt Collection: Beneath Technology — Scenes at the ThresholdCourtesy of Seoul Museum of Art
- SeMA Public Space Project: Dance of Eternal PolaritiesCourtesy of Seoul Museum of Art
- Lynn Hershman Leeson: First Person PluralCourtesy of Seoul Museum of Art
- MMCA DeoksugungKimhs5400 (블루시티), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Seoul Museum of Artgypsycrystal, CC BY 2.0
- Seoul Museum of HistoryJjw / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- National Museum of Korean Contemporary HistoryTrace84 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- National Palace Museum of KoreaJinho Jung, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0