Contemporary Korean Art

by Robert Watkins,

Visting Professor, Dept. of Interior Design, Pai Chai University

This presentation will provide the student with an introduction to several

contemporary Korean artists working at home and abroad whose work has

contributed to Korea’s exposure in the world of fine art. This lecture is not meant as

a survey of contemporary Korean art, as it is by no means exhaustive, but will serve

as a cross section of work from some of the more well-known artists of Korean

descent over the past 50 years.

Attempts to focus on the art of individuals from a specific country often

prompt questions regarding identity: what does the work say about being a Korean

artist or an artist of Korean descent? In today’s world of globalization it is

increasingly more difficult to determine what influence an artist’s country of origin

may have on their work as many artists study, work and live everywhere but their

country of birth. It is especially difficult to discuss the influence of origin because

identity is an issue artists often call into question through their work. In the simplest

terms it may be fair to say that questions about origin and identity are appropriate

only when the artwork’s formal qualities lend to a discussion of the artist’s

nationality.

Inspiration is another important and yet controversial issue. Due to the vast

number of images and the alarming rate at which they are proliferated around the

world today we may think we know what informed an artist’s visual vocabulary when

the work itself is oftentimes the source for another’s inspiration. Who influenced who

is an interesting yet often fruitless question, however, in the interest of presenting

these artists in a global context, artists whose work exhibits similar themes and

interests have been included with art terminology in a glossary following the text. In

the end a work of art speaks for itself and mount its own defense for being no matter

the origin or influence from which it springs. In the court of popular opinion the

work’s closing argument is the unique way in which it enriches our lives by

broadening our understanding of ourselves and the world we live in. The artists

presented here have proven themselves in the world of art by producing work which

consistently speaks to issues relevant no matter the context in which they are

viewed.

Jheon Soo-cheon (전수천)

Jheon Soo-cheon (b. 1947) is one example of a Korean artist who studied

and lives abroad but garnered his native country a great deal of attention. Jheon

studied at the Tama School of Fine Arts in Japan and Pratt in New York. In 1995 he

won the Special Prize at the Venice Biennale, a world renown exhibition held every

two years beginning in 1895 whose curators choose artists to represent their

countries. Jheon used mixed media including clay figures, neon tubes and plaster

in the 1990s. He has more recently created large scale public works and

installations.

Two mixed media installations have used the landscape as metaphors for the

painter’s canvas: The Moving Line on the Han River,” an installation of wood and

fabric on the surface of the large river running through Seoul and “The Moving

Drawing of Jheon Soocheon: The Line That Crosses America.” In the latter a train

was draped in white plastic and carried the artist and friends across the United

States, stopping in Washington, D.C., Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and

Albuquerque. According to Jheon the work was a “participatory installation

embracing visual arts, nature and technology.”

His latest work is a site-specific work entitled “Beyond Bar Codes” in which

the artist transformed a gallery space floor to resemble a large barcode and placed

different sculptural objects in the space. This work is also participatory in that it

entices the viewer to enter the space and become products themselves. The moving

drawing piece invites similarities to the work of artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude

(both born 1935), most notably Running Fence in which the two created a 24-mile-

long white curtain in northern California. Jheon’s work succeeds in its embodiment

of large themes through simplistic and well-conceived metaphors.

Lee Seung-Taek (이승택)

Born in 1930 Lee Seung-Taek graduated from Seoul’s Hongik University in

1959. He has exhibited in several major international exhibitions such as the Paris

Biennale in 1969, the Sao Paolo Biennale in 1970, the Venice Biennale in 1990,

Germany’s Kassel Documenta in1992 and Korea’s own Kwangju Biennale in 2004.

Lee has referred to his works as “non-sculpture” and “anti-concept” due to their

emphasis upon phenomena, or events over plasticity, or physicality. His earlier

works involved streamers blown by the wind, burning trees and pigments allowed to

follow gravity’s course.

Lee’s conceptual program draws comparisons to different art movements and

themes, namely Earth Art and performance art, however he is adamant that his

work not be viewed in relation to these. Lee explains that his first sculptural work

evolved when as a young artist he made a stylistic break that caused him to question

his reasons for making art. Lee cites the simplicity and elegance of a Korean

traditional weaving machine called a “Godret stone” as a motivation for his works by

the same name. This object which holds specific memories for the artist represents

something more universal. Although Lee denies any direct influence from Western

influence in his work it is unlikely his work would be possible if not for

conceptualism, a movement born in the West. Comparable artists include Robert

Smithson (1938-1973), whose 1969 work “Asphalt Rundown” bears a similarity to

Lee’s “Green Campaign” works, as well as Andy Goldsworthy (b. 1956).

Prolific as it is varied Lee’s work seems to defy categorization yet the

diversity is evidence of the artist’s willingness to pursue as many paths as required

to find a sense of creativity within oneself. The performative aspect of Lee’s work

reveals this spirit of exploration and places the artist at the center of his work, from

which center his work expands dizzyingly outward in a colorful display.

Nam June Paik (백남준)

It is difficult to calculate the degree to which Nam June Paik’s (1932-2006)

long career of work has influenced not only Korean contemporary art but

contemporary art in general. Although his is probably the first name which comes to

mind in the West when one thinks of contemporary Korean artists Paik has lived

primarily in the United States since the 60’s. Born in Korea, Paik’s family fled the

country during the Korean War, eventually settling in Japan, where the artist

graduated from Tokyo University. He also studied in Germany where he met the

revolutionary composer John Cage (1912-1992) and the influential conceptual artist

Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) and became a member of the Fluxus group.

Paik first exhibited televisions manipulated by magnets in 1963 and after the

invention of the world’s first portable video recording device in 1965 he became the

first artist to create video art. In his 1969 work entitled “TV Bra for Living Sculpture”

a cellist, playing a Paik composition, wore two small television screens over her

breasts. Work in the years following include sculptures made from multiple television

sets, usually older sets replaced with new picture tubes. Other large works include

multi-channel installations in which televisions arranged in a wall or tower flash

images generated by computers, an array replicated with less than inspired results in

countless store displays.

Being on the forefront of technology combined with an understanding of the

world’s growing obsession with television have made Paik’s work all the more

poignant. Perhaps the best example of how he has used technology to comment on

technology’s consumption of culture is the 1986 work Something Pacific in which a

small statue of Buddha sits contemplatively watching an image of itself being

televised simultaneously through a camera thus creating an infinite loop from which

the passive figure cannot escape.

Kim Soo-ja (김수자)

Kim Soo-ja is an artist whose Korean heritage uniquely informs her work.

She was born in Daegu in 1957, graduated from Hong-ik University and currently

resides in New York. The artist’s early sewn work draws inspiration from her

experiences sewing bedcovers with her mother as well as traditional Korean quilt

work however, these comparisons are less obvious in her more recent work. Cloth

has since become a metaphor for life throughout Kim’s work.

As well as deploying cloth in various ways that hint at abstract

expressionist painting Kim creates installations which place the cloth in different

spaces. This act of de-contextualizing, placing it in an area the viewer would not

normally associated with the object, forces the viewer to confront the object

provoking thought upon our relationship with it. Another traditional Korean use of

cloth, the “bottari,” a simple piece of cloth used to wrap items one intends to carry,

has become a constant theme in her work. The nature of the “bottari” has lent itself

to numerous video projects in which colorful pieces of cloth taken from old clothes

and bed covers are wrapped in bundles secured with black cords and transported on

the back of a truck traversing a distance. In these works movement symbolizes life’s

journey as well as the transition between states of being.

Cloth permeates so many aspects of human life that it has become an

integral part of being human. The “bottari” itself signifies numerous things. The artist

treats the bottari as a vessel which represents life’s amalgam of experiences. Cloth,

both a personal and universally significant object, stands in for the viewer’s

relationship with the world. Like the “bottari” we are folded into relationships with

ourselves, others and the space we inhabit in sometimes awkward yet nonetheless

brilliant and colorful ways.

Nikki S. Lee

Nikki S. Lee (b. 1970) is a Korean born artist who graduated from Chunang

University in Korea, attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and

received a M.A. in photography from New York University. Lee began her

photographic investigation of identity while a student in New York. “Projects” which

spanned the years 1997-2001 is a collection of photographs in which Lee dresses

and poses as people from different walks of life. Among the identities she assumed

were exotic dancers, punks, senior citizens, Latinos, swing dancers, skateboarders,

lesbians, young urban professionals, Korean schoolgirls and hip-hop “fly girls.”

Following this series Lee posed in other another series which required that

she wear designer clothes in extravagant settings, almost as though she were

parodying the media attention and success garnered by the “Projects” photos. In a

series called “Parts” Lee poses with men, again crossing ethnic and social

boundaries. Here, however, the theme of identity is purposefully complicated by the

relationships depicted in the photos. The word “parts” plays on the word “role” as

well as the fact that in each of the pictures the artist’s male companion is obscured

suggesting that the female figure’s persona is in part defined by the relationship.

Most recently Lee filmed a sort of behind-the-scenes documentary about

herself entitled “A.K.A Nikki S. Lee.” The film is self-reflexive, meaning it holds up a

mirror which reflects the artist in her genuine environment while at the same time

reflecting how difficult it is to depict such an environment. In the film the camera

follows Lee running errands, setting up photo shoots, socializing at exhibition

openings and meeting with collectors. It is not so much a comment upon Lee’s life

as an artist as it is upon the art of artifice: how to make something appear real while

at the same time admitting that the question of what is real is never answered to

everyone’s satisfaction. Lee’s work is often compared to that of photographer

Cindy Sherman (b. 1954).

Cho Duck Hyun (조덕현)

Cho Duck Hyun was born in Korea in 1957 and received undergraduate and

graduate degrees from Seoul University. Cho’s work uses photo-realistic

representation and sculptural elements in order to re-examine Korea’s often

turbulent past and comment upon the idea of memory. Graphite recreations of old

photographs, sometimes from the artist’s family’s own past, depict scenes of

Koreans in traditional dress or the simple costume of daily life. The scenes span

Korea’s more recent history, during which the country suffered occupation at the

hands of the Japanese and invasion during the Korean War. The portraits are often

juxtaposed with steel, glass and wood plates which provide the somewhat

ephemeral portraits with a weight comparable to the metaphoric weight of their

emotional content.

Another aspect of Cho’s oeuvre is his use of female portraiture in

commenting upon the role of women in Korean culture. One particular series depicts

the lives of two women, Nora Noh and Joeong-shun Lee Harmsworth who lived

separate lives at different periods of time, the former as fashion designer and the

latter as the wife of a wealthy aristocrat. Cho’s work does not compare nor contrast

so much as provide the means for reflection upon their legacies as Korean women.

In another project entitled “Yiseoguk,” which takes its name from a legendary

kingdom in Korea’s past Cho buried several figures of dogs at a site which was later

excavated and documented by an archaeological crew. The work is meant to be the

culmination of effort in reclaiming what was once lost in effect building a bridge to the

past.

An acute sense of loss mixed with the painful memories of Korea’s

emergence as a nation tinge the work of Cho Duck Hyun in much the same way the

patina of a faded photograph qualifies its agedness in our minds dyeing our

collective memory with its color.

Do-hoh Suh

Do-Ho Suh was born in Seoul, Korea in 1962 and graduated from Seoul

National University with degrees in Oriental Painting. He also studied at the Rhode

Island School of Design and Yale University. In addition to a retrospective of his

work at the Seattle Art Museum and the Seattle Asian Art Museums, Suh

represented Korea in the 2001 Venice Biennale. Suh is best known for his

installations made from multiple small figures often supporting something such as

Doormat: Welcome(Amber),1998, and Public Figures, 2001. The use of multiples is

also apparent in Some/One, 2001, in which dog tags spread across the floor gather

to form the empty shell of an armor suit. This particular work comments upon the

fact that an army’s collective strength is derived from the many individual soldiers

who comprise it.

Suh’s sculptures play with space by confounding the viewer’s sense of scale

and by inhabiting the viewer’s space in unconventional ways. His more recent works

add the element of memory to his investigations of space. In Perfect Home,2003

Suh recreated actual structures and spaces using translucent fabric. When placed in

the gallery these structures force the viewer to confront a space within a space and

creates the feeling of looking into a computer generated simulation of space such as

one might find in a virtual reality program. The transparent fabric elicits an

ephemeral quality and succeeds in confusing preconceptions of space as rigid and

fixed. The ephemeral nature of the pieces also provokes a connection to memory,

something which is intimately tied to the way our bodies occupy the world. In Seoul

Home/L.A. Home/New York Home/Baltimore Home/London Home/Seattle Home/L.A

Home. 1999 Suh recreated two apartments in which he lived. The sculptural work of

Do-Ho Suh, whether made of small figures or diaphanous fabric, speaks to our

experience and preconceptions about space and then turns those ideas on their

heads.

Atta Kim

Atta Kim was born in 1956 on Korea’s southernmost island, Geoje and left

after elementary school to study in Busan. Although he graduated with a degree in

mechanical engineering from Changwon University he had pursued photography as

a hobby since middle school. Among many other achievements Kim represented

Korea in the São Paulo Biennial in 2003. Kim now lives and works in New York.

Kim’s first series of photographs entitled Psychopaths, 1985-86 depicted psychiatric

patients. Another work from the artist’s early career, Human Cultural Assets, 1989-

90, is a series of portraits of people considered national treasures by the Korean

government.

Kim’s process involves spending a considerable amount of time with each

subject, such as in the two aforementioned series. Later, this element of time

reveals itself in long and multiple exposures. A notable series which uses long

exposures is In-der-Welt-sein, 1990-91, photographs of natural objects found near a

Buddhist monastery taken between 3 and 5 AM—hours of Buddhist enlightenment.

Kim’s recent work falls under two broad titles, The Museum Project and ON-AIR.

The Museum Project explores categorization and collection by depicting subjects

from various walks of life in plexiglass containers. Kim refers to the subjects as

pieces of his “private museum.”

The idea that a photograph depicts something frozen in time led him to

question the permanence of his subjects. In his ON-AIR project Sex Series, a

couple is photographed while engaged in intercourse over one hour. Self-Portrait is

a series of single composite photographs made from large numbers of individual

portraits. Kim’s photography allows the viewer to witness the passage of time and its

affects upon people and objects and urges the viewer to exercise the same

contemplativeness which the artist himself brings to his work in the hopes they might

share in his reverence for the human race.

Lee Bul

Lee Bul was born in South Korea in 1964 and received a BFA in sculpture

from Hongik University. She has since exhibited extensively in museums and

galleries internationally including the Venice Biennale (1999) and Istanbul Biennale

(2001). She is considered by many to be the leading Korean artist of her generation.

Lee Bul began experimenting with unconventional materials such as silicone and

plastics as a student in an attempt to escape the traditional media used in university

sculpture programs. She first gained recognition for donning costumes which

incorporated limbs and visceral forms which added a performative aspect to her

work. Lee Bul’s early sculptural work is comparable to that of Louise Bourgeois (b.

1911), whose work similarly references the body and addresses feminist issues in

art.

Lee Bul’s work explores the body and its representation in our technologically

saturated world. Her cyborg sculptures depict limbs and torsos created with silicone

and white porcelain. The sculptures resemble characters seen in Japanese anime

and manga while at the same time referencing images of femininity from classical

art. The collision of this imagery creates something new and unexpected just as the

cyborg is an amalgam of the artificial and natural. More recent work illustrates the

artist’s interest in juxtaposing different media. By combining diverse materials such

as glass, crystals, and aluminum in a series that pays homage to the architect Bruno

Taut (1880-1938) the artist creates a fusion that echoes the way modernism

synthesized styles and ideologies.

Another manifestation of the artist’s desire to create new aesthetic

experiences through synthesis is her current series of karaoke related projects. In

them she presents videos of people dancing in different spaces and allows the

viewer to choose music to accompany the images which they may also sing along

with. Lee Bul’s art recombines different cultural imagery and different materials to

comment on the transformational aspect of modern life.

Glossary

formal – This term refers to an artwork’s physical characteristics. Dimensions (size),

composition (design), color, materials and the method of construction are all formal

qualities.

Venice Biennale – The Venice Biennale is a major art exhibition held every two

years in Venice, Italy. The first Biennale was in 1895 and since then the exhibition

has attracted international acclaim as one of the world’s foremost venues for

displaying contemporary art.

mixed media – Any artwork which combines two or more media (materials) is

considered “mixed media.” An artwork which incorporates photography with painting

is one example.

installation/installation art – Artworks which employ sculptural elements in a

space, whether the private space of a gallery or a public space like a park, thus

changing the dynamics of the viewer’s experience are considered installations.

Installation art allows the artist to work without restrictions regarding scale, site or the

diversity of materials used.

site-specific – Site-specific artwork utilizes the unique characteristics of the space in

which it is being displayed and the way in which the artwork interacts with the site.

(see Christo and Jeanne-Claude)

Christo and Jeanne-Claude – Christo and Jeanne-Claude (both born 1935) are a

married couple who create large scale site-specific installations. Well-known

works include Running Fence (1973), Wrapped Reichstag (1995), The Umbrellas

(1990) and most recently The Gates (2005).

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped Reichstag (1995)

Earth Art – Earth Art (sometimes referred to as earthworks or land art) refers to art

work which incorporates the natural landscape. As a movement it began in the

United States in the 60s and 70s and includes artists like Robert Smithson, James

Turell and Andy Goldsworthy.

performance art – Art in which an individual or group’s actions are the focus is

considered performance art. Time, space, a performer or performers and an

audience are requisite elements of performance art. Performance art is often

documented with photography and video. Performance artists include Vito Acconci,

Chris Burden, Carolee Schneemann and Joseph Beuys, among many others.

Skip Arnold, Gargoyle, 1992

conceptualism/conceptual art – Conceptual art includes any art which privileges a

concept above the means or materials with which it is presented. One example is a

piece by Robert Morris entitled “Box with the Sound of its Own Making,” 1961, a

simple wooden box containing a recording of the sounds of its construction.

Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991

Robert Smithson – Smithson was an influential American artist whose earthwaorks

helped defined Land Art in the 60s and 70s. His most recognized work is Spiral

Jetty, 1970 in which he constructed a spiral-shaped jetty of rocks, earth and salt in

the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

Spiral Jetty, 1970

Andy Goldsworthy – Andy Goldsworthy (b. 1956) is an artist who site-specific

land art sculptures use natural objects to create temporary works which the artist

documents in photographs.

Spiral Stones

Fluxus – This term (Latin for "to flow") describes a collection of artists, composers

and designers who created objects, texts, music and performances inspired by the

intersection of different styles and materials. The movement began in 1960 and key

figures include George Maciunas, John Cage and Dick Higgins.

George Maciunas, Spell Your Name with these Objects (1976)

video art – video art began when the first artist exhibited recorded images. Nam

June Paik is normally associated with having pioneered video art when he played

images recorded on a Sony Portapak video recorder in 1965. Since then many

artists have used video including Bill Viola, Tony Oursler and Matthew Barney.

abstract expressionism – This art movement began in America in the 1940s

although it was highly influenced by German expressionism which began in the

1920s. Abstract expressionist paintings are noted for their bold use of gesture and

color. They term applies to artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and

Mark Rothko.

Mark Rothko, Magenta, Black, Green on Orange,, 1952

Cindy Sherman – Cindy Sherman (b. 1954) is a artist who is well known for her

photographs in which she changes her appearance using costumes and make-up.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #153, 1985

photo-realism – This refers to the process of creating a painting with such precision

as to resemble the realism of its photographic source.

oeuvre – The sum total of an artist, writer or composer’s works.

Louise Bourgeois – Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911) is an artist born in Paris whose

early work consisted of erotic sculptures which referenced the body. More recently

her large sculptures of spiders have won her acclaim. She has been influential to

many female artists working today.

Louise Bourgeois in a sculpture/performance