National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Announces Blueprint for 'Lee Kun-hee Collection'... Sequential Release Starting July

August Seoul Gwanseo 'Lee Geonhee Collection Part 1: Modern Art' Exhibition
Comprehensive Coverage of Modern and Contemporary Art History Including Painting, Sculpture, Craft, Drawing, and Printmaking
Enhancing Quality and Quantity of Korean Modern Art Collection... Deepening Research on Modern Art History

Lee Jung-seop, White Ox, 1953~1954, 30.7x41.6cm (Photo courtesy of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art).

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) has announced a blueprint to sequentially unveil the 'Lee Kun-hee Collection' to the public.

The MMCA announced on the 7th that starting with the Seoul branch in August, it plans to reveal the 'Lee Kun-hee Collection' through special and permanent exhibitions and visible storage at locations including Gwacheon and Cheongju in 2022.

Detailed Schedule for the 'Lee Kun-hee Collection' Unveiling

The MMCA will showcase about 40 Korean modern and contemporary artworks in the 'Lee Kun-hee Collection Part 1: Modern Masterpieces (tentative title)' exhibition at the Seoul branch in August. Following that, in December, the 'Lee Kun-hee Collection Part 2: Overseas Masters (tentative title)' will feature works by Monet, Renoir, Picasso, and others. In March 2022, the 'Lee Kun-hee Collection Part 3: Lee Jung-seop Special Exhibition' will present 104 paintings, drawings, and postcard paintings by Lee Jung-seop.

The Deoksugung branch will display some works in the 'Korean Beauty, Yesterday and Today' exhibition held in July, and in November this year, a large number of works from the Lee Kun-hee Collection will be featured in the 'Park Soo-keun' retrospective. In September 2022, some pieces from the Lee Kun-hee Collection will be exhibited at the Korean Modern Art Exhibition held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in the United States, providing an opportunity to introduce high-quality Korean modern art overseas.

At the Gwacheon branch, the 'New Encounters' exhibition, themed on the new meeting between the Lee Kun-hee Collection and the MMCA’s own collections and archives, will open sequentially in April and September 2022.

At the Cheongju branch, through the 'Visible Storage' that integrates storage and exhibition, visitors will be able to deeply appreciate representative works from the Lee Kun-hee Collection. Additionally, in 2022, special touring exhibitions linked with regional cooperative network museums will be held to allow more citizens to view these precious art assets.

Kim Jong-tae, A Boy, 1929, 53x45.4cm (Photo courtesy of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art).

The Scope of the 'Lee Kun-hee Collection' Held by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

The 'Lee Kun-hee Collection' held by the MMCA consists of 1,488 pieces (1,226 items). This represents about 6.5% of the approximately 23,000 artworks (11,023 items) collected by the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, which the Samsung family pledged to donate on the 28th of last month. With this donation, the MMCA has entered the era of holding over 10,000 artworks, adding to its existing 8,782 pieces.

The donation process followed the museum’s procedures, including four rounds of artwork inspections, donation review meetings, artwork intake, and issuance of donation certificates. All donated works were stored in the temperature- and humidity-controlled storage at the Gwacheon branch. The donated works will be gradually disclosed on the museum’s website through processes such as artwork inspection, condition assessment, registration, photography, copyright negotiations, and research. The official name will be ‘Lee Kun-hee Collection’ and will be included in the basic information of the artworks. This designation will also be used in website disclosures, exhibitions, and publications to honor the spirit of the late collector and his family who entrusted their lifelong collected artworks to the public.

Specifically, the 'Lee Kun-hee Collection' includes 1,369 works by 238 Korean modern and contemporary artists and 119 works by 8 foreign modern artists. The collection covers a relatively balanced range of genres: 412 paintings, 371 prints, 296 Korean paintings, 161 drawings, 136 crafts, and 104 sculptures.

By production period, about 320 works created up to the 1950s account for approximately 22% of the total donation. Based on the artists’ birth years, about 860 works fall into the category of so-called ‘modern artists’ born before 1930, representing about 58% of the total donation.

By artist, Yoo Young-guk leads with 187 works (20 paintings, 167 prints), followed by Lee Jung-seop with 104 works (including 19 paintings, 43 postcard paintings, and 27 silver foil paintings), Yoo Kang-yeol with 68 works, Jang Uk-jin with 60 works, Lee Ungno with 56 works, Park Soo-keun with 33 works, Byun Kwan-sik with 25 works, and Kwon Jin-kyu with 24 works.

Joan Miro, Composition, 1953, 96x377cm (Photo by National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art).

The Significance of the 'Lee Kun-hee Collection' Donation

The greatest significance of this donation is that it has dramatically elevated both the quality and quantity of the modern art collection held by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Until now, the MMCA held only about 960 works created before the 1950s. In particular, the donation has greatly supplemented the scarce and difficult-to-collect modern period holdings, which is expected to play a significant role in the study of Korean modern art history.

Among the 'Lee Kun-hee Collection,' a notable point is the large donation of ‘representative works’ by Korean painters such as Kim Eun-ho, Lee Sang-bum, Byun Kwan-sik, Kim Ki-chang, and Park Rae-hyun, which has enhanced the quality of the museum’s Korean painting collection. These include Lee Sang-bum’s Cheongnok Landscape 'Mureungdowondo (1922)' painted at age 25, Noh Soo-hyun’s famous representative work 'Gyesanjeongchwi (1957)', Kim Eun-ho’s early color painting masterpiece 'Ganseong (Looking at Stars) (1927)', and Kim Ki-chang’s 5-meter large-scale work 'Gunmado (1955)'.

The collection also features works by representative modern artists such as Park Soo-keun, Jang Uk-jin, Kwon Jin-kyu, and Yoo Young-guk, whose works were difficult to acquire due to limited acquisition budgets at the MMCA.

Additionally, several rare modern artworks were donated, including Na Hye-seok’s 'Hwanyeongjeon Peony (1930s)', Baek Nam-soon’s only 1930s work 'Paradise (1937)'?she was a female painter and also Lee Jung-seop’s teacher?and one of only four surviving oil paintings by Kim Jong-tae, 'Boy (1929)'.

It is also symbolic that works by overseas masters have become part of the MMCA’s collection for the first time. The opportunity to see works by masters such as Monet, Gauguin, Picasso, Joan Mir?, Salvador Dal?, and Marc Chagall domestically is highly meaningful.

Lee Sang-beom, Mureungdowondo, 1922, 158.6x390cm (Photo by National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art).

Future Research Plans for the 'Lee Kun-hee Collection'

The MMCA plans to conduct foundational academic research by 2022 to build a database of artwork information including artist names, titles, materials and techniques, and production years. Investigations such as production period and compositional analysis will also be conducted concurrently.

Key data related to the artworks will be compiled through interactions with the artist’s family, living artists, and art community figures. Alongside the completion of foundational research, the MMCA will begin publishing a catalog of the ‘Lee Kun-hee Collection’ holdings and progressively hold academic events analyzing the significance of the donated works by period and theme. These will be shared through various research papers and publications. Ultimately, by focusing on the art historical value of the donated works, the museum aims to broaden the horizons of Korean art history research.

Yun Bum-mo, Director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, said, “We are grateful to the family of the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee for donating the artworks he collected throughout his lifetime for the development of Korean culture and arts. Through this large-scale donation, the MMCA will open the era of holding over 10,000 artworks with high-quality art pieces and will strive to enhance the public’s cultural enjoyment.”