"Modern and Contemporary Korean Ink Paintings and Ceramics" Exhibition Opens March 25, 2004 at Kang Collection Gallery of Korean Art

March 5, 2004 -- Kang Collection Gallery of Korean Art is pleased to announce "Modern and Contemporary Korean Ink Paintings and Ceramics," a groundbreaking exhibition that marks the first comprehensive overview of Korean ink painting from the 1850s to the present to be shown in the U.S. Also featured will be a number of contemporary works by Korea's premier ceramicist Kim Yikyung (b. 1935). "Modern and Contemporary Korean Ink Paintings and Ceramics" is on view at Kang Collection Gallery, 9 East 82 St, New York, NY, from March 25 through April 3, 2004.

The opening is Wednesday, March 24, and is by invitation only. The public opening will be Thursday, March 25, from 11:30–5:30. Admission is free, and during the exhibition Kang Collection will be open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday 11:30–5:30 p.m. At all other times, admission is by appointment only.

"Modern and Contemporary Korean Ink Paintings and Ceramics" offers an unprecedented look at the evolution of Korean ink painting over the past 150 years. The earliest works in the exhibition, dating back to the last 40 years of the Joseon period (1392–1910), present the last examples of classic Korean literati painting. Paintings from the Japanese Occupation (1910–1945) demonstrate the important artistic trends that arose as a result of political breakdown, including the dissolution of class separation between the noble literati and professional court painters, the spread of Japanese and Western aesthetics throughout previously isolationist Korea, and the conscious nationalism that continues to permeate Korean art today. Finally, paintings after Liberation (1945–present) form a diverse body of work that reflects the many artistic movements and individual ways in which artists depict their unique experiences as Koreans in a globalized society. Post-Liberation paintings cover modern explorations of Korea's eighteenth-century "True-View" landscapes, abstract expressionism of the 1960s and '70s, the monochromatic movement, and folk-inspired iconography.

Highlights of the exhibition include a range of works spanning seven decades by the Heo family--modern Korean Southern School (Honamhwap'a) and Ullimsangban atelier founder Heo Ryeon (1809–1892), his son Heo Hyeong (1852–1931), and grandson, the eminent twentieth-century painter Heo Geon (1907–1987); calligraphy and "Four Gentlemen" paintings by the famous late-Joseon literati painter Gim Gyu-jin [Haegang (1868–1933); works by the fathers of modern Korean painting An Jung-sik (1861–1919) and Jo Seok-jin (1853–1920); Occupation-era "artist-recluse" protest paintings modeled in tone and subject on those of Chinese literati dissidents; works by modern giants/rivals Byeon Kwang-sik (1899–1976) and Yi Sang-beom (1899–1978); a superb collection of paintings by "the Picasso of Korea," famed Son Buddhist monk Jung Gwang (1935–2002); and mountain paintings by Seong Jae-hyu (1915–1996) and Min Kyoung Kap (b. 1933).

The ceramics portion of the exhibition focuses on contemporary works by Kim Yikyung (b. 1935). Internationally known as Korea's foremost ceramicist, Kim is renowned for her robust silhouettes and architectonic forms, and her works are collected by leading museums around the world, including The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The British Museum, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The Detroit Institute of Art, The Royal Ontario Museum, and Ho-Am Art Museum.

For additional information, or to request an opening invitation or exhibition catalogue, please contact Alison Hoogerwerf.

About Kang Collection
Founded in 1981, Kang Collection is the foremost Korean art gallery in the United States, specializing exclusively in Korean paintings, calligraphy, and objects from the Proto-Three Kingdoms period to the present. Gallery founder Keum Ja Kang received her M.A. in Far-Eastern Art History from Columbia University where she completed her thesis Korea's Three-Kingdom Period; she holds a B.A. in Western Art History. Works from Kang Collection can now be found at almost every major U.S. museum with a significant Asian art collection, including among many others, The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University, The British Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Peabody-Essex Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Seattle Museum, and The Victoria & Albert Museum.



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