Seoul Auction raised 11.5 billion won at the auction, selling 94 percent of the pieces on the block. Kusama’s “Pumpkin” accounted for nearly half of the total sales made on the day. The 92-year-old artist is one of the most sought-after artists in the local auction market with 119 paintings worth 267 billion won sold this year as of October, according to data from the Korea Arts Management Servi...

A government plan to expand cultural facilities to regional areas is making headway, after the decision for the so-called “Lee Kun-hee donation hall” to be established in Seoul caused an uproar among regional cities and lawmakers. Several proposals to secure the budget to launch additional venues of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, across the country will be discussed t...

The new gallery’s inaugural exhibition next year will be a solo show of Colombian American artist Lari Pittman, who is based in Los Angeles. Widely regarded as one of the most significant painters of his generation, Pittman has explored unique visual aesthetics and complex compositions, mediating the tensions between color, text and imagery, according to the gallery. Titled “Opaque, Translucent,...

In the 15th century, it was the private residence of a grand prince. Then in the late 19th century, it became the imperial palace of the short-lived Korean Empire. During the Japanese colonial period that followed, it was reduced to a public park. This is the story of Deoksugung, now South Korea’s historical site No. 124 and one of the most serene places tucked in central Seoul. An artistic pro...

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)

Korea’s art auction market having a record-breaking year

Founded in 2002, the Charles B. Wang Center is located at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York. The cultural center is dedicated to understanding Asian and Asian American cultures. Jin was appointed as the second director of the center in September 2013. Jin holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Analysis and Theory from Stony Brook University and an MA in Art History from Columbia University.

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, said Friday that it will hand over the bequest from the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee to the new hall that is scheduled to be built in 2027 in central Seoul. In the meantime, it is examining and cataloging the works. “We are undertaking thorough research on 1,488 artworks from the Lee Kun-hee collection, such as the names and m...

South Korean art master Park Seo-bo confirmed that he would not allow his works to be produced as NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, stressing that digital art belongs to a new generation. Park made his stance known on social media Thursday amid growing attention to the digital art trend, saying people had asked him whether he was interested in tokenizing his works. Park’s paintings are highly popular...

National Museum of Korea, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea to hand over Lee family donations to new entity

Restoration work on museum building to begin next year

The monumental spider sculpture “Maman,” by French artist Louise Bourgeois, once stood at the Leeum Museum of Art in central Seoul, but was moved to the lakeside near the Ho-Am Museum of Art where its full majesty can be viewed against the surrounding mountainous scenery. The exhibition will run through Dec. 12, after which renovation of the museum will resume in late December. Admitting that t...

French architect looks underground to counter indiscriminate expansion of urban landscape

The retrospective sheds light on Choi’s literary talent, presenting her poetry along with her paintings. The exhibition runs until Feb. 13 at MMCA Gwacheon. The museum lifted restrictions on the number of visitors starting Monday as part of the government’s “living with COVID-19” scheme. A number of Choi’s works are included in the currently traveling exhibition “Women in Abstraction,” organize...

Korea’s art market has been in full swing over the past couple of years with local art fairs recording the largest-ever sales annually. The 20-year-old KIAF Seoul raked in 65 billion won ($55.5 million) in sales with 88,000 visitors in its five-day run in early October. The 10-year-old Art Busan wrapped up in May with a record 80,000 visitors, and logged 35 billion won in sales.