Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s

Lee Kun-Yong, Logic of Hand, 1975/2018. Four chromogenic prints, each 33 7/16 × 33 7/16 in. (85 × 85 cm); edition 1 of 2. Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul. © Lee Kun-Yong. Photos: Courtesy the artist

On September 1, 2023, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presented Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s, the first North American museum exhibition dedicated to Korean Experimental art (silheom misul) and its artists, whose radical approach to materials and process produced some of the most significant avant-garde practices of the twentieth century. This historic presentation examined artistic production from an era of remarkable transformation in Korea. 

 The exhibit was on view from September 1, 2023, through January 7, 2024, where the historic presentation examined the artistic production from an era of remarkable transformation in South Korea, when young artists who came of age in the decades following the Korean War reflected and responded to the changing socioeconomic, political, and material conditions that accompanied the nation’s rapid urbanization and modernization. The exhibition is centered on a network of key artists, including Ha Chong-Hyun, Jung Kangja, Kim Kulim, Lee Kang-So, Lee Kun-Yong, Lee Seung-taek, and Sung Neung Kyung, who, in addition to creating boundary-pushing works of art, pursued exhibitions, performances, publications, and public seminars, often under the rubric of self-organized collectives. Porous in nature, groups such as the Korean Avant Garde Association, Space and Time, and the Fourth Group, as well as nationwide exhibition platforms such as the Daegu Contemporary Art Festival and international biennials, provided fertile grounds for innovative – and often provocative – practices that broke definitively with those of their predecessors. While the artists never formally announced a movement, the term “Experimental art” was first historicized in a landmark publication by Kim Mikyung based on her doctoral dissertation Experimental Art and Society in 1960s and 1970s Korea (2000), which has since propelled a reexamination of this influential but understudied group of artists. 

Visual Sense I, II, 1968

Kang Kukjin, Neon and stainless steel, each 110 1/4 × 18 1/8 × 18 1/8 in. (280 × 46 × 46 cm). National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. © Kang Kukjin Estate. Photo: © Hwang Yangja, courtesy National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

The Meaning of 1/24 Second, 1969

Kim Kulim, Color 16 mm film, silent, 9 min., 14 sec.; edition 2 of 8. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Gift of the artist 2020.11. © Kim Kulim. Photo: Courtesy the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

[Sung Neung Kyung, 세계전도, 世界顚倒, An Upside-Down Map of the World, 1974]

Lee Seung Jio, Nucleus F-G-999, 1970.

Oil on canvas, 63 3/4 × 63 3/4 in. (162 × 162 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York Committee on Painting and Sculpture Funds and gift of Richard Roth, Kukje Art and Culture Foundation, and Miyoung Lee. © Lee Seung Jio. Photo: © The Museum of Modern Art, licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, New York

 Installation view, Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, September 1, 2023–January 7, 2024. Photo: Ariel Ione Williams © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s, is thematically sequenced and featured approximately eighty works across various mediums, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, installation, and film, most of which were presented for the first time to an international audience. It offered visitors an unprecedented opportunity to experience the creativity and breadth of this generation of Korean artists, illustrating how they harnessed the power of contemporary visual languages to explore pressing issues shaped by an authoritarian state at home and a globalizing world beyond. 

On the occasion of this presentation, a series of special performances were re-staged in the exhibition’s galleries: Lee Kun-Yong’s Snail’s Gallop took place during October 13–14; Sung Neung Kyung’s Reading Newspapers, which took place during November 17–18; and Kim Kulim’s From Creation to Extinction, took place during December 1–2. 

The exhibition was accompanied by a full-color scholarly publication, the first in the English language on Experimental art, with contributions by Cho Soojin, art historian; Joan Kee, Professor of Art History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Yoon Jin-sup, artist, curator and critic; and curators Kyung An and Kang Soojung. In addition to incisive new scholarship and lavish photography of works drawn from public and private collections across the globe, the volume also brought together translations of articles, artist manifestos, and other primary sources that offer a firsthand perspective on the ideas then shaping artistic discourse in South Korea. 

Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s was co-organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. The exhibition is cocurated by Kyung An, Associate Curator, Asian Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York, and Kang Soojung, Senior Curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. The exhibition will open at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, on May 26 and close on July 16, 2023. It will 

Support 

Lead support for Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s was provided by the Samsung Foundation of Culture. 

The Leadership Committee for this exhibition is gratefully acknowledged for its support, with special thanks to Jae Won Chey, KoRICA, Kahng Foundation, Mimi O. Kim, Kukje Art & Culture Foundation, Gay-Young Cho and Christopher Chiu, Dow Kim Family Foundation, Tina Kim Gallery, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, Lehmann Maupin, Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, Yang Won Sun Foundation, Boris Yeung, Alyssa Yoon, and those who wish to remain anonymous. 

Support was also generously provided by The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Korea Arts Management Service, The Kate Cassidy Foundation, The W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, and Byucksan Cultural Foundation. 

Funding was also provided by the Korea Foundation.

Additional funding was provided by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s Asian Art Circle. 

About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation 

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was established in 1937 and is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of modern and contemporary art through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The international constellation of museums includes the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; and the future Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. An architectural icon and “temple of spirit” where radical art and architecture meet, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is now among a group of eight Frank Lloyd Wright structures in the United States recently designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

To learn more about the museum and past, current and future exhibits and the Guggenheim’s activities around the world, visit here.