art stories in January 2010

Masterpieces From Philadelphia in Seoul

Pablo Picasso’s “Woman and Children” is one of the masterpieces at the ”Monet to Picasso: Masterpieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art” ongoing at Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center, southern Seoul. / Courtesy of Organizers By Cathy Rose A. Garcia Staff Reporter In recent years, several high-profile retrospectives of Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Pierre Auguste Renoir have brought their artworks to Seoul. Now, the ``Monet to Picasso'' exhibition gathers selected masterpieces from these European greats and more at the Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center, southern Seoul. Some 96 paintings, drawings and sculptures, reflecting a range of 19th and 20th century art in Europe and U.S., from the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania have traveled to Seoul for the first time. The museum, which opened in 1877 and is one of the largest in the U.S., has been endowed with an impressive collection of landscapes, portraits and figure studies by French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters. Among the masterpieces now in Seoul are Monet's ``Marine View with a Sunset,'' Pierre Renoir's ``Grand Boulevards,'' Van Gogh's ``Still Life with Bouquet of Daisies,'' Picasso's ``Woman and Children'' and Henri Matisse's ``Yellow Odalisque.'' The Seoul exhibition is divided into four sections. ``Realism and Modern Life'' shines the spotlight on realist painters, who favored naturalism over idealization, such as Gustav Courbet, Camille Corot, Eugene Boudin and Edouard Manet. ``The Battle of the Keasarge and the Alabama'' (1864) is Manet's first known seascape that depicts a naval battle from the American Civil War off the coast of France. The second section focuses on ``Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.'' The French Impressionists introduced this revolutionary art movement in the 1860s, where they captured the immediate sensation of their natural surroundings at specific times of the day. Perfect examples of Impressionists are Monet's ``Morning at Antibes,'' Alfred Sisley's ``Landscape (Spring at Bougival),'' Camille Pissarro's ``L'lle Lacroix, Rouen'' (The Effect of Fog) and Edgar Degas' ``The Ballet Class.'' Pierre-Auguste Renoir's ``The Grand Boulevards'' and ``Portrait of Mademoiselle Legrand,'' a very pretty portrait of a young girl, are also must-see paintings. The Post-Impressionists favored a more abstract style, with more exotic subjects and use of vivid colors. Paul Gauguin's ``The Sacred Mountain'' (Parahi Te Marae), shows the tropical landscape of Tahiti with exotic flowers and bright colors. Also included in this section are impressive sculptures by Rodin, Picasso, Degas and Matisse and Constantin Brancusi. One of the most famous pieces is Brancusi's ``The Kiss,'' a limestone sculpture of two tightly entwined lovers. The third section ``Picasso and the Avant Garde'' is devoted to Fauvism, Cubism and Avant Garde art movements. Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso were widely credited with radically changing the perception of art with Cubism. In Cubism, space, mass and volume are depicted in ways that call attention to the flatness of the picture rather than creating a three-dimensional image. This is exemplified in ``Woman and Children,'' Picasso's portrait of his then wife Jacqueline Roque, her daughter Cathy and his daughter Paloma; and Braque's ``Basket of Fish.'' Finally, the American art collection highlights artists Alexander Calder, Andrew Wyeth, Charles Demuth, Mary Cassatt and John Sloan, who have strong connections to Philadelphia and the museum as well. The turning point in American art came in 1913, when the Association of American Painters and Sculptors held an exhibition of modern American art at the Armory in New York City. It showed that modernism had arrived in the U.S. Cassatt, who was raised in Philadelphia, is credited with helping popularize Impressionism in North America. She is known for paintings featuring women and children, as seen in ``Family Group Reading.'' Other works in the section include Pop Art master Roy Lichtenstein's ``Still Life with Goldfish'' and conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp's ``Portrait of the Artist's Father.'' The ``Monet to Picasso'' exhibition runs through March 28. It is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets range from 7,000 won to 13,000 won. Visit pma.chosun.com or www.sac.or.kr. To get there, get off at Nambu Bus Terminal Station subway line 3, exit 5 and take bus No. 12. which stops at Seoul Arts Center. cathy@koreatimes.co.kr

Contemporary Art Museum Gears Up for Busy Year

“Moon Is the Oldest TV” (1976 version) by Paik Nam-june is part of the “Floating Hours” exhibition organized by the National Museum of Contemporary Art. It will travel to the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria, from September to early 2011. / Courtesy of National Museum of Contemporary Art By Cathy Rose A. Garcia Staff Reporter The National Museum of Contemporary Art is gearing up for another busy year with a full slate of exhibitions from Korean and international artists. Bae Soon-hoon, director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, said the museum hopes to attract 1.5 million visitors this year, a 36 percent increase over the 1.1 million in 2009. The museum unveiled a lineup of 15 exhibitions that will be held at the museums in Gwacheon, Deoksu Palace and other venues, including one that will go abroad. The ``Floating Hours'' exhibition, which features works by renowned Korean artists such as Paik Nam-june, Kim Ho-duck and Kang Ik-joong, will be held at the Deoksu Palace Museum from May 5 to July 4. The exhibition will then travel to museums in the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria, starting September to early 2011. Installation artist Park Ki-won, who was recently named the museum's Artist of the Year, will also be the focus of a solo exhibition, from April 7 to May 30 in Gwacheon. Also in Gwacheon, pop Art lovers will be able to enjoy the ``Pop, Pop, Pop'' exhibition from Nov. 10 to March 2011. It will showcase representative works by some of the best contemporary Pop artists from East Asia. A retrospective of American artist and composer John Cage (1912-2002) will also be held, July 14 to Oct. 3 in Gwacheon. Cage and his experimental music was a big influence on the Fluxus art movement of the 1960s. At the National Museum of Contemporary Art at Deoksu Palace, the ``Asian Realism'' exhibition will run from July 28 to Oct. 10. Organized together with the Singapore Art Museum, it aims to examine the Realism movement in Asia from the 19th century to the 1980s. It will feature over 100 works by 80 Realism masters from 10 Asian countries. Around 90 pieces from the Albertina museum in Vienna, Austria will be shown from Oct. 25 to Feb. 2011. The museum is known for having one of the largest print collections in the world, with around 65,000 drawings and one million old master prints. There will also be retrospectives on Korean artists such Park No-soo, March 17 to April 18 at the museum in Deoksu Palace; Chung Chang-sup, Aug. 4 to Oct. 17, and sculptor Song Yung-su (1930-1970) Sept. 8 to Nov. 14, both at the museum in Gwacheon. The exhibitions are part of the museum's efforts to appeal to a broader audience, Bae said. The museum is also stepping up its marketing and promotion campaign and improving its services for museum-goers. Meanwhile, plans to convert the former Defense Security Command site in Sogyeok-dong, Seoul into a museum are underway. The architect to transform the building, popularly known as ``Gimusa,'' will be chosen by May. Demolition of the old building is scheduled for September. For more information about the upcoming exhibitions, visit www.moca.go.kr. cathy@koreatimes.co.kr

Listen to a Festival of Sound Art in Seoul

Australian artist Geoff Robinson created an installation at a junction at Seoul Seonggwak, Samcheong Park, Seoul from Dec. 19 to 30. He will recreate this work at KT&G Sangsangmadang Gallery, Hongdae, as part of “Sound Effects Seoul 2010: Sound Specific,” which opens Friday. / Courtesy of Sound Art Korea By Cathy Rose A. Garcia Staff Reporter When people go to art festivals, they usually expect to see visually stimulating paintings and sculptures. But at the upcoming "Sound Effects Seoul 2010: Sound Specific (SFX Seoul)," people are invited to listen. "SFX Seoul," the third international sound art festival organized by Sound Art Korea, opens Friday evening with a ceremony at Space Hamilton, Hannam-dong. ``This year's festival focuses on intimate relations between sound and the place where it is heard, featuring artists from Australia, Taiwan and Korea, in a series of exhibitions, discussions and live performances,'' Sound Arts Korea said in a statement. Sound Arts Korea was formed in 2006 by Baruch Gottlieb and Ji Yoon Yang with the goal of promoting sound art in Korea. Gottlieb is an artist and taught for three years as a Media Art professor at Yonsei University Graduate School of Communication and Arts, while Yang is a curator specializing in sound arts and media performance. For the festival, the artists explored the intimate relationship between a place and its sound, with Seoul as the backdrop. ``In 'SFX Seoul Sound Specific,' we invited our international selection of artists to consider the relation between sounds and space, the space of the city, the space of the exhibition, the sounds of the space and the sounds passing through the space, an alternative way to experience architecture and structures of urbanity,'' organizers said. Works by Alice Hui-Sheng Chang, Yangachi (featuring Ryu Han-kil and Kwon Euy-hyun) and Kim Seoung-young + Oh Youn-seok will be featured through Jan. 31 at Space Hamilton. Chang, an artist from Taiwan, creates works that focus on extended vocal techniques ``in hope of evoking a psychological connection to indescribable feelings.'' Kim and Oh collaborated on their sound sculptures and installations. Yangachi is known for his large-scale narrative installations combining radio, video, sculpture, designer objects, text and Web-based elements. His ``Middle Corea'' project, which follows the virtual story of the Kim family, sniper Cha Ji-ryan and the Savior, is part of the festival. Meanwhile, Australian artist Geoff Robinson will be showing his works at KT&G Sangsangmadang Gallery in Hongdae through Feb. 10. He is known for his ``surround sound audio landscape structures that combine sculptural and media-art techniques in a unique form of performative documentation,'' Robinson chose a particular place in Seoul to build his recording structure, capturing the sounds of the city. The physical structure will be recreated and the recordings to be played in the gallery. The first "SFX Sound Effects Seoul" was staged in 2007, with exhibitions, performances, workshops and conferences. The following year, "SFX Radio 2008" featured two international exhibitions and a temporary terrestrial radio station, live performances and a conference. This year's "SFX Seoul" will also have a forum on sound art on Jan. 13, at 2 p.m. on the 4th floor of KT&G Sangsangmadang, and live performances at 7 p.m., on the B1 level of the same building. Space Hamilton is open from noon to 8 p.m., while KT&G Sangsangmadang is open from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Both are closed on Mondays. Visit http://sfxseoul.org. cathy@koreatimes.co.kr