Gwacheon Donation Exhibition, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art a single old painting from the 1960s and 1970s After Lee Kun-hee’s donation, the donation increased significantly. Lee Byung-kyu, Yoon Jung-sik, and others are looking at it again.
In 2021, the wind brought by Lee Kun-hee’s collection was strong. As awareness of art donation has increased, donations from individual collectors and artist bereaved families have increased significantly at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.
In 2021 alone, 1,488 Lee Kun-hee Collection and 195 Dongsan Park Joo-hwan Collection were followed by 173 donations by artists such as Han Un-sung and 183 donations by the artist’s bereaved family. 2,134 points were collected during the year, which exploded from an average of about 200 points per year.
In particular, Lee Byung-kyu and Yoon Joong-sik’s works were included in Lee Kun-hee’s collection, with 5 and 4 donated, respectively, and then 13 and 20 more donated by the bereaved families in the second half of 2021. The following year, donations by Yoon Il-joo, Lee Wan-seok, Lee Dong-yeop, Choi Wook-kyung, and Kim Yong-kwan continued, and Lim Il-young was also donated in 2023. By the end of 2023, donations will account for 55.6%, more than half of 6,429 out of 11,560 collections.
A meaningful exhibition will be held thanks to those who have donated their precious works of art like their children. It is the “MMCA Donation Art Exhibition: A Conception Painting in the 1960s and 1970s” that opens on the 21st at the Gwacheon Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and runs until September 22. Among the donated works over the past five years, 153 figurative paintings by 33 domestic artists, including Lee Byung-kyu, Do Kyung-bong, Yoon Jung-sik, Park Soo-geun, Kim Young-deok, and Kim Tae, will be presented.
Yoon Dae-kyung donated 20 paintings of his father, Yoon Joong-sik, and said, “I decided to donate when I saw the Lee Kun-hee Collection making a nationwide tour. I couldn’t sleep for a few days when I donated it because it was like my father’s alter ego, but I’m so satisfied to see him go around the national art museum now.”
In the art world of abstract art, this exhibition is welcome not only in the meaning of 復 but also in the diversity of the exhibition. Including 104 pieces of Lee Kun-hee’s collection, he meets paintings collected intensively by former Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee in the 1960s and 1970s, and various donations widely depict the map of the group of artists of this era.
The mainstream of figurative painting was the Japanese modern art school. In the first generation of Ko Hee-dong, Kim Hwan-ho, and Kim Chan-young, Western art learned in Japan was delivered to Korea, and Lee Byung-kyu, Sang-bong, Oh Ji-ho, and Kim In-seok used the naturalistic style acquired in Japan through still life, scenery, and characters. Feeling a sense of crisis as the wave of abstraction blew strongly, the figurative painters established the Mokwoohoe in 1958 to inherit Korean academyism. Lee Byung-kyu, Sang-bong Kim Eui-seung, Lee Jong-moo, Kim Sook-jin, and Kim Chun-sik are representative writers. In particular, Lee Byung-kyu, who was donated and disclosed by the bereaved family, works as a calligraphy teacher at Yangjeong School, including Self-Portrait, and presents a unique green landscape and figure painting painted in the school greenhouse.
Lee Kun-hee’s collection masterpieces such as “The National Painting” (1958) by Dong Sang-bong, Park Soo-geun’s “Nongak” (1960s), and Kim Chun-sik’s “浦口” (1977) featuring the fishing village scene of “Song of Hometown” by Hwang Yoo-yeop, the author of the cow, in an impressionist style will be unveiled this time.
In 1967, Guangjeon also played a major role in the development of the Guanghwa style. It displays works by artists who launched the 1967 Exhibition, including Hwang Yoo-yeop, Lee Bong-sang, Choi Young-rim, Park Go-seok, and Hong Jong-myung. They avoided passive posture toward objects and independently expressed their inner images, breaking away from the conventional academic style framework.
Yoon Jung-sik, who also became famous for his collection of BTS RM, is the best discovery of the exhibition. He is from North Korea, lost his daughter after defected to South Korea, and lived alone with his son, missing his hometown for the rest of his life. As seen in “Goldfish and Pigeons” (1979), he enjoyed depicting the subject matter of his hometown, such as pigeons, ducks, and geese, and features bold summaries and intense colors based on beastism and expressionist styles. In “Boy and Still Life,” which depicts his son, Yoon Dae-kyung, you can feel the affection for his family. Kim Tae’s Matière-heavy paintings, which were painted using a U.S. military tent as a canvas due to lack of material costs, will also be unveiled for the first time as donations.
Kim Sung-hee, head of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, said, “I understand that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is pushing for the construction of the Lee Kun-hee Donation Hall,” which is drawing keen attention from the art world. There are also various opinions in the art world, including modern art museums and donation galleries, but it is not possible to give a definite answer.
