KOREA FOUNDATION

The Space Between: The Modern in Korean Art—Exhibition at LACMA

From September 11 this year through February 19 next year, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will present the KF-supported exhibition The Space Between: The Modern in Korean Art.

As the first large-scale exhibition featuring pre-modern and modern Korean art, the event will display over 130 works by 88 artists who were active from 1897, the year of the proclamation of the Korean Empire, to 1965, the dawn of modern art in South Korea. See the process of how the Korean art world formulated its own modernity and identity through exchanges with other cultures amid dramatic social changes in Korea incurred by Japan’s colonization, the Korean War, and other upheavals.

Jointly organized by LACMA and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea(MMCA), the exhibition is the seventh part of Hyundai Motor’s Korean Art Scholarship initiative at LACMA and the fruit of time-consuming research on Korean art history. An English-language catalog that lists the exhibits is also available.

The exhibition is organized chronologically and provides an international perspective on modern Korean art by exploring its European, American, and Japanese influences. It is also meaningful in the context of art history, as it displays modern works from an array of genres such as oil paintings, photographs, and sculptures to connect Korea’s traditional fine art—lesser known in the West—with contemporary art.

Los Angeles County Museum of ArtLACMANational Museum of Modern and Contemporary ArtMMCAThe Space BetweenThe Modern in Korean Art