The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA, Director Youn Bummo)
presents DNA: Dynamic & Alive Korean Art, an exhibition that brings Korea’s historical and cultural assets
and modern and contemporary art together to shed new light on Korean aesthetics, from Thursday, 8 July,
through Sunday, 10 October 2021, at MMCA Deoksugung.
Beginning with the question, “What are Korean aesthetics?” the exhibition juxtaposes cultural assets from
museums with artworks from galleries to identify the DNA of Korean aesthetics, which transcend time and
space. Furthermore, with 10 Korean cultural assets representative of Korean aesthetics selected and studied
by contemporary aestheticians such as Koh Yuseop, Choi Soonwoo, and Kim Yongjun, the exhibition aims to
look at the significance and influence of tradition on Korea’s modern and contemporary art
The exhibition consists of four sections: “Sacred and Ideal (聖),” “Elegant and Simple (雅),” “Decorative and Worldly (俗),” and “Dynamic and Hybrid (和).” These four key phrases, each representing a central
element of East Asian aesthetics, have served as a basis for how tradition is understood in East Asian modern
and contemporary art.
The first section “Sacred and Ideal (聖)” explores how an idealistic notion of beauty from the Three
Kingdoms Period to the Goryeo Dynasty has affected and been embodied in Korea’s modern and
contemporary art. “Sacred (聖)” refers to the value of religious sanctity and sublimity. As a core element of
East Asian aesthetics, this notion is largely reflected in religious art, exemplified by tomb murals from the
Goguryeo Kingdom that illustrate a longing for an afterlife in a heavenly world and Seokguram Grotto, a
hermitage from the Unified Silla Kingdom that reflects a belief in the Buddha and a desire for nirvana. Dou
Meng, a calligrapher from China’s Tang Dynasty, described the highest level of art as “sacred (聖).” This remark can
be applied to the perfect forms and colors of Goryeo celadon pottery, the elaborate decoration techniques and designs
of which had a direct and indirect influence on artist Lee Jungsup and his work. Providing an opportunity to explore
Goryeo celadon pottery and its development process, as well as identifying the simultaneous uniqueness and
traditional beauty inherent in Lee Jungsup’s art, this section highlightsthe ability of artworks to shine on their own and
reflect each other.
The second section “Elegant and Simple (雅)” focuses on Korean artists’ struggles to define Korean art through
their interaction with the international art world and pursuit of Korean modernism in response to Western modernism
after Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule. This section also looks at Korean expressionism and the beauty of
“clumsiness” pursued in the context of “atypical” beauty. “Elegant and simple (雅)” means “clear, right, and graceful”
and conveys a non-secular aesthetic taste associated with nobility. The products of the pursuit of simple elegance
include “true-view” landscape paintings by Jeong Seon, who painted natural landscapes by observing (and
assimilating with) them in person, and paintings by Kim Jeonghui, who aimed to depict thought intellectually. The
phrase “elegant and simple (雅)” is, in a way, connected to the formativeness of purity or “nothing,” which can be
expanded to the “imperfectness” and “non-formativeness” of plain white moon jars. Additionally, the way these
paintings and white porcelain jars established a viewpoint on tradition deserves a spotlight in that it led to the craze for
Dansaekhwa, Korea’s monochrome abstract paintings, and the discourse on the color white that occurred in the 1970s
and 1980s.
The third section “Decorative and Worldly (俗)” examines decorative beauty, which pursued strong,
expressionist aesthetics in reaction to Western art and the mainstream art of the Joseon Dynasty and Korea’s
modern and contemporary eras. Referring to popular and conventional art, the phrase “decorative and
worldly (俗)” denotes artistic and literary tastes that can be accepted by anyone. This element is well
reflected in genre paintings, portraits of beautiful subjects, and folk paintings from the Joseon Dynasty. This
section traces how Kim Hong-do’s genre paintings and Sin Yunbok’s portraits of beautiful subjects came to
represent Korean art and be internalized by Korea’s modern and contemporary artists, influencing their
artwork. The phrase “decorative and worldly” is also connected to the Buddhist paintings of the Joseon 3
Dynasty, which aimed to bring Buddhism to the public. Gamnodo and siwangdo, types of Joseon-era
Buddhist paintings that reflect the harshness of life at the time, led to the Minjung art of the 1980s and the
later popularity of strongly colored paintings.
The last section “Dynamic and Hybrid (和)” emphasizes shifting perspectives on Korean aesthetics,
starting in the 1990s, when a wide variety of coexisting values and beauty standards experienced dynamic
changes in the transition to postmodernism. The phrase “dynamic and hybrid (和)” refers to an amicable
reconciliation between two opposing sides. In traditional East Asian aesthetics, this does not mean that one
side overpowers the other, but that both sides reach unity through harmony and respect for their mutual
differences. This phrase proposes that ancient cultural assets and contemporary art, seemingly incompatible
and pulling in different directions, can make each other shine. This section’s artworks, inspired by a gold
crown from the Silla Kingdom (National Treasure No. 339) demonstrate how tradition is contained in the
tides of contemporary art. The past and present of Korean art live together in harmony in these four key
concepts (聖, 雅, 俗, 和) representative of Korean aesthetics, which continue to transcend time and space.
Along with the exhibition, a 650-page catalogue will be published, collecting studies focusing on Korea’s 10
representative cultural assets by 44 researchers of traditional, modern, and contemporary art. The catalogue
aims to recontextualize Korean art through 48 columns and critiques that closely look at the process by
which tradition is created and how modern and contemporary art react to it.
Youn Bummo, the director of MMCA, notes, “This exhibition is unique in that national treasures and
contemporary artworks are on display together. I hope that visitors enjoy the wide variety of Korean artworks
on display and are able to feel the past and present of Korean art, which are both still dynamic and alive.”
□ For general inquiries, please call +82-2188-6000 (MMCA Deoksugung).
