The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea brings light to Korean watercolor paintings at its first-ever exhibition of watercolors
Compared to other art genres, watercolor paintings have been relatively ignored, often underestimated because of the easy accessibility of watercolors compared to oil paintings, for example.
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea has opened its first exhibition that solely focuses on watercolor paintings at its museum in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. MMCA Cheongju is displaying some 100 paintings by 34 artists and one-fifth of the paintings, having been kept in the museum's storage since their acquisition, are being shown for the first time.
Watercolor paintings were taken up in earnest by modern artists such as Lee Jung-seop, Chang Uc-chin, Lee In-sung and Seo Dong-jin during the Japanese colonial era (1910-1945), when many Korean artists were exposed to Western-style paintings. The genre continued to develop throughout the Korean War and contemporary era.
As watercolor paintings share some common traits with Korea’s traditional ink wash paintings, or sumukhwa, modern Korean artists soon developed their own style. Among them is Lee In-sung, known as a master of watercolor paintings in the mid-1900s. Lee was only 17 years old when he won a prize at the sixth Joseon Arts Exhibition, organized by the Japanese Government during the colonial period, according to the museum.
Lee’s watercolor paintings occupy an important place in Korea's art history as he did not limit the genre to realistic depictions, breaking away from typical watercolor paintings.
Rather, Lee expressed his emotional state using the impression of the object he paints. “Kyesan-dong Cathedral” from the 1930s is a watercolor painting of a cathedral in Daegu, the artist’s hometown, that features a unique atmosphere by combining the artist's emotions with the depiction of the scenery.
The exhibition unfolds through three sections: “The Emergence of Watercolor in Modern Korean Art,” “Watercolor as a Medium for Expression” and “Abstraction in Watercolor.” The last section explores how the influence of dansaekhwa, contemporary Korean monochrome-style paintings, can be observed in contemporary watercolor paintings that feature monochromatic compositions, often conveying a meditative and process-driven sensibility.
The exhibition runs through Sept. 7 at MMCA Cheongju.
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