Sculptor Kwon Jin Kyu finds permanent home Nam-Seoul Museum of Art

Nam-Seoul Museum of Art, a branch of Seoul’s municipal museum, is located in the 118-year-old building that once was the Belgian Consulate, near Sadang Station in southwestern Seoul. Now in the five galleries on the museum’s first floor...

Kwon Jin Kyu's works during his Tokyo period in his permanent exhibition at the ″Forever Home″ gallery in Nam-Seoul Museum of Art. [MOON SO-YOUNG]

The view of Nam-Seoul Museum of Art in the 118-year-old building which once was the Belgian Consulate, in southwestern Seoul. [MOON SO-YOUNG]

Nam-Seoul Museum of Art, a branch of Seoul’s municipal museum, is located in the 118-year-old building that once was the Belgian Consulate, near Sadang Station in southwestern Seoul. Now in the five galleries on the museum’s first floor are modern sculptures reminiscent of both archaic European sculptures and old Asian Buddhist statues, which harmonize with the white spaces of the museum with an early-20th-century European feel.

The sculptures are works by sculptor Kwon Jin Kyu (1922-1973) and the five galleries are his “Forever Home,” which is the first-ever permanent exhibition gallery in a public museum dedicated to the pioneer of modern Korean sculpture.

The “Forever Home” gallery opened at the start of this month, after Kwon’s younger sister Kyung-sook, her sons and the Kwon Jin Kyu Commemoration Foundation donated 141 pieces of the artist’s works to Nam-Seoul’s mother museum — the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA).

Now, 26 of Kwon’s sculptures and 88 pieces of related material, including the artist’s drawings and notes, are on view.

“Kwon was born during the Japanese colonial period [1910-45] and traveled back and forth between Korea and Japan with difficulty [because the two countries had no diplomatic relations until 1965 after the liberation of Korea from the Japanese colonial ruling] in order to create works that embody the essence of his subjects and that live forever,” said Choi Eun-ju, general director of SeMA. "The encounter between the former Belgian Consulate and Kwon’s works is special in the historical context and the encounter reinforces the existence and significance of each other."

Kwon was born in 1922 in Hamheung, a city now in North Korea. In 1949, he went to Tokyo to study sculpture at Musashino Art School, which is now Musashino Art University. The first two galleries feature his experiments in the Tokyo period (1949-59). The section includes the heads modeled after Domo Ogino, a junior in Kwon’s school, his girlfriend and later his wife.

The couple separated as Kwon returned to Korea in 1959 due to his mother’s ill health and divorced in 1965 due to various practical reasons, although they still had feelings for each other, according to the curators of the exhibition.

Kwon Jin Kyu's ″White Bull″ inspired by Lee Jung-seob's bull paintings. [MOON SO-YOUNG]

The last three galleries feature Kwon’s works after he returned to Korea. The works include small full-length human figures, animal heads and reliefs which have simplified and concentrated forms and primitive energy. They show influence from the French sculptor Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929) whom Kwon admired. The exhibits also include the sculpture “White Bull” inspired by Korean modern painter Lee Jung-seob’s famous bull paintings.

The exhibition shows Kwon used various materials such as stone, wood, plaster, bronze and terracotta. In particular, he was fascinated by terracotta’s texture and colors, as the material has been used since the primordial periods. He also actively tested geonchil, or lacquered hemp cloth, which was used to make ancient East Asian Buddhist statues.

Among the exhibits are heads and busts of Kwon’s friends, acquaintances and himself, which are regarded as his signature works. The heads and busts have a spiritual feel, as they have simplified forms and only their calm gaze, which seems to stare at something distant and transcendent, is emphasized.

Kwon Jin Kyu's self-portrait in his last years. [MOON SO-YOUNG]

Among them the artist’s self-portrait sculptures in the 1970s “are filled with agony due to the art world’s dull response to his third solo exhibition [...] and the deterioration of his health,” the museum explained in a pamphlet. In 1973, he took his own life at the age of 51.

The museum also showcases various materials and photographs related to the creation of the works that were not featured in SeMA’s large-scape retrospective of Kwon in its headquarters near the City Hall in central Seoul last year. The copies of the artist's drawing books have been made available for visitors to this permanent exhibition.

“Inspired by the doors, window frames, shelves, and furniture found in Kwon's hand-built atelier, the exhibition space is designed to make the viewer feel as if they are visiting the atelier and exploring the entirety of Kwon's work, with workstations and archival furniture made of solid wood,” the museum said in a press release.

"We would like to change the content of Kwon’s permanent exhibition every two years to reflect the new stories about the artist that we create together with many citizens, researchers, and artists who love him,” Choi said. “We look forward to establishing the Nam-Seoul Museum of Art as a home where Kwon's spirit will continue to live and breathe."

BY MOON SO-YOUNG [moon.soyoung@joongang.co.kr]