Seung-taek Lee, Lee Ufan, Suh Se Ok 이승택, 이우환, 서세옥 : Lineages: Korean Art at The Met

Featuring works by Seung-taek Lee, Lee Ufan and Suh Se Ok, Lineages: Korean Art at The Met at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York celebrates the 25th anniversary of the museum’s opening of Arts of Korea gallery. Lineages: Korean Art at The Met highlights the history of Korean art by showcasing around 30 artworks from the 12th century to the present, exploring four intertwined themes—lines, things, places, and people.

Suh Se Ok’s ink painting, People marks the beginning of the exhibition. People, in which pointed ‘lines’ create a character for “human” (人, in) and in repetition, express a figuration of abstracted mountainous landscape, reinterprets the methodology of traditional ink painting with a modern approach and thus, plays a significant role of bridging traditional and contemporary art. Lee Ufan’s featured work From the Line embodies the essence of Eastern aesthetics and rhythm, through the harmony of the void and the vertical line drawn from top to bottom. Also featured is Seung-taek Lee’s Tied White Porcelain from the Bound Series, that plays with the malleability of material by twisting the shape of white porcelain with a rope, while embracing the simple and graceful Spirit of Seonbi from Joseon Dynasty, embedded in the porcelain. The exhibition runs until 20 October, 2024.

Suh Se Ok, People, Korea, 1988, ink on paper, 73 5/8 × 73 5/8 in. (187 × 187 cm). National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul. Image courtesy of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul.

Suh Se Ok, People (detail), Korea, 1988, ink on paper, 73 5/8 × 73 5/8 in. (187 × 187 cm). National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul. Image courtesy of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul.

Seung-taek Lee, Tied White Porcelain, Korea, 1979, porcelain, H. 10 13/16 × W. 11 7/16 in. (27.5 × 29cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of Gallery Hyundai, Seoul.

Seung-taek Lee, Tied White Porcelain (detail), Korea, 1979, porcelain, H. 10 13/16 × W. 11 7/16 in. (27.5 × 29cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of Gallery Hyundai, Seoul.

Installation view of Lineages: Korean Art at The Met, on view November 7, 2023–October 20, 2024 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo by Paul Lachenauer, courtesy of The Met.

Lee Ufan, From Line, Korea, 1979, oil on canvas, 76 3/16 in. × 8 ft. 5 15/16 in. (193.5 × 259 cm). Leeum Museum of Art, Korea. Image courtesy of Leeum Museum of Art, Korea.

뉴욕 메트로폴리탄미술관에서 한국 미술 전시관 개관 25주년을 기념하여 열리는 전시 《Lineages: Korean Art at The Met》에 이승택, 이우환, 서세옥의 작품이 소개되고 있다. 《Lineages: Korean Art at The Met》은 선, 사물, 장소, 사람이라는 상호 연결된 네 가지 주제 아래 12세기 한국의 고전 예술품부터 현재에 이르는 작품 30여 점을 소개하며 한국 예술사의 주요한 흐름을 선보인다.

서세옥의 수묵화 〈사람들〉이 전시의 서두를 장식한다. 두 ‘선’이 만나 사람 인(人)이 되고, 사람 인(人)이 이어져 ‘산’의 형상을 보여주는 〈사람들〉은 전통 수묵 기법을 현대적인 감각으로 재해석한 작업으로 전통 예술과 현대 미술 사이를 잇는 주요한 작품이다. 또한, 위에서 아래로 그어진 선과 여백의 조화를 통해 동양적 미의 세계와 운율감을 담은 이우환의 〈선으로부터〉, 이승택의 “묶음 조각”(Bound Series) 중 하나로 조선시대의 소박하고 단아한 선비 정신을 담아낸 백자를 노끈으로 형태를 비틀어 물렁물렁하게 보이게 하는 〈매어진 백자〉가 소개되고 있다. 전시는 10월 20일까지