Full description from the venue
This exhibition is organized to reflect on the spirit of donation embodied by Ha Jungwoong, Honorary Director, and to systematically illuminate the art-historical and cultural significance of the Ha Jungwoong Collection. Through this exhibition, the museum aims to expand the meaning and value of public museum collections.
Ha Jungwoong Collection 1993–2018 presents selected representative works from the Ha Jungwoong Collection alongside related archival materials in order to explore the formation of the collection and its broader art-historical and social significance. The exhibition title, Ha Jungwoong Collection 1993–2018, symbolically refers to the 25 years between the first donation in 1993 and the eighth donation in 2018, highlighting Ha Jungwoong’s sustained commitment to cultural patronage and philanthropy.
The exhibition is organized into three sections.
‘Donation, Testimony of an Era’ introduces works by Korean artists in Japan alongside archival materials related to the donations, examining how the initial act of support and solidarity developed into a significant public collection.
‘The World Engraved in Print’ focuses on prints by major international artists, exploring how printmaking, as a medium characterized by multiplicity and wide circulation, has served as a platform for aesthetic experimentation and reflections on contemporary society.
‘Time of Reflection’ presents works by Korean abstract artists, inviting viewers to experience the layered thinking embedded in Korean modern and contemporary art through the tension between time, repetition, materiality, and spirituality accumulated on the pictorial surface.
Through this exhibition, the Gwangju Museum of Art hopes to draw attention to the historical consciousness and ethical values embodied in the Ha Jungwoong Collection, while opening a broader discussion on the public significance of museum collections and the social role of art.
Chun Hwahwang was born in 1909 in South Pyeongan Province. Recognized for his talent in painting during his school years in Pyongyang, he later became a first-generation Korean artist in Japan who worked mainly in Kyoto. In the late 1930s, after undertaking mendicant Buddhist practice, he moved to Japan and lived at Ittōen, where he pursued both spiritual discipline and painting. From the 1950s onward, he focused on Buddhist iconography such as the Baekje Avalokitesvara and Maitreya Bodhisattva. His paintings go beyond religious representation, reflecting an attitude of spiritual practice and repentance shaped by the turbulent history of the colonial period, the Korean War, and the division of Korea.
Marc Chagall was a 20th-century modernist artist born in Russia who worked mainly in France. He grew up in Vitebsk, now part of Belarus, and his experiences within a Jewish community repeatedly appeared in his works through religious symbols and folkloric imagery. After moving to Paris in 1910, he engaged with the avant-garde and developed a distinctive style characterized by vibrant colors and floating figures, angels, and animals. Later, through the period of the Russian Revolution and his years in exile, he expanded his practice into various media including painting, printmaking, and stage design. From the late 1960s, he also created stained glass and mural works in several cities, extending his poetic imagery into public spaces while continuing to produce paintings and prints throughout his later years.
Jim Dine studied printmaking at the Cincinnati Art Academy and received his BFA from Ohio University in 1957. In the late 1950s, he participated in the Happening movement with artists such as Claes Oldenburg and Allan Kaprow, contributing to the experimental performance scene in New York. His work later expanded through Neo-Dada and Pop Art. Dine’s practice is strongly autobiographical, often using recurring motifs such as hearts and garments to express personal memory and identity. His works have been exhibited in major cities including New York, London, Paris, and Berlin, and he has continued his practice in places such as Gottingen in Germany, New York and Walla Walla in the United States, and St. Gallen in Switzerland.
Yoo Youngkuk was born in 1916 in Uljin, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea, and studied art at the Bunka Gakuin in Tokyo in 1935. During his studies he associated with artists such as Kim Whanki, Jang Uk-jin, and Lee Jung-seop, and consistently explored abstraction from an early stage, when it was still considered an avant-garde movement. He received an award at the Jiyu Bijutsuka Kyokai Exhibition in 1938. After returning to Korea in 1943, he resumed active artistic practice in Seoul from 1955, participating in groups such as the New Realist Group, the Modern Art Association, and the Sin Sanghoe. His paintings take inspiration from the mountains and sea of his hometown Uljin, reconfiguring nature through simplified forms and bold fields of color. Rather than depicting the outward appearance of nature, his work seeks to grasp its essence through abstraction, and is regarded as a pioneering achievement in Korean abstract art.