Yoo Youngkuk exhibition finds the 'golden mean' between two extremes at PKM Gallery

An exhibition that reflects on Yoo’s artistic work is taking place at PKM. Titled “Stand on the Golden Mean,” 34 paintings from the 1950s and 1980s are on view, ranging across all sizes.

″Work″ (1982) by Yoo Youngkuk [PKM GALLERY]

The Korean art world in the 20th century saw dansaekhwa (monochrome painting) artists like Park Seo-bo, Ha Chong-hyun, Yun Hyong-keun and Lee Ufan take center stage. In a similar period, there was one painter who went down a different path: Yoo Youngkuk (1916-2002).

While his fellow influential colleagues focused on the repetition of brushstrokes using limited hues on canvas in an exercise of introspection, Yoo drew abstract paintings that were characterized by bright colors and bold forms, mostly depicting the mountainside of his hometown of Uljin, North Gyeongsang.

Despite the times and trends rapidly changing in postwar Korea, Yoo held his ground to develop his own style of art.

“He was like a flag that maintains its position no matter how heavy the winds are,” said Yu Jin, son and secretary general of the Yoo Youngkuk Art Foundation during a news conference at PKM Gallery in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Monday.

An exhibition that reflects on Yoo’s artistic work is taking place at PKM. Titled “Stand on the Golden Mean,” 34 paintings between the 1950s and 1980s are on view, ranging across all sizes.

Yoo Youngkuk [PKM GALLERY]

Twenty-one of them have been unveiled to the public for the first time. All these years, they were kept in possession by his family because Yoo had refused to sell them at prices lower than his larger-sized works.

Yoo lived in a gaok (traditional Korean home) in Yaksu-dong in Jung District, central Seoul, with his family and drew in the maru (spaces with wooden floors that connect gaok rooms to the outside) during the cold winters to save on heating expenses.

Due to the porch-like space being long and narrow, Yoo would draw smaller-sized paintings here.

“People thought they could buy his paintings at much lower prices just because they were small,” said Yoo Cha-ya, daughter and director of the Yoo Youngkuk Art Foundation. Her father believed that small paintings had as much value as the others because they had “more density.”

“He told us that his works were not to be priced in proportion to their size, which is why they were simply tucked away until now,” she said.

″Work″ (1979) by Yoo Youngkuk [PKM GALLERY]

According to PKM, Yoo’s larger-scale works tend to be at least 1 billion won ($746,700) and his smaller works, sized at 24.5 centimeters (9.6 inches) by 33.3 centimeters, slightly larger than a 13-inch laptop screen, are around 100 million won.

The title of the exhibition at PKM, “Stand on the Golden Mean,” references the philosophic state of a perfect balance between two opposite extremes. The golden mean is translated as jungyong in Korean. Such a virtue has been closely associated with Yoo’s works.

It took weeks just to settle on the exhibition’s name, PKM president Park Kyung-mee said, as it had to be one that would represent Yoo’s unique artistic universe — one that was a blend of traditional Korean attitudes toward nature and Western abstract art techniques.

″Work″ (1967) by Yoo Youngkuk [PKM GALLERY]

″Work″ (1964) by Yoo Youngkuk [PKM GALLERY]

The shapes, techniques and colors in Yoo’s works are described as profound but not hyperactive, lighthearted but with depth and dashing but still temperate, which ultimately achieves the golden mean of beauty.

Even after more than two decades since his death, the late modernist continues to be celebrated in the Korean art scene. In 2016, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Busan Museum of Art jointly held exhibitions commemorating the 100th anniversary of Yoo’s birth.

Just last year, Yoo made his first overseas solo exhibition at the Pace Gallery in New York. Yoo’s works made their European debut at the Venice Biennale in April with the exhibition “A Journey to the Infinite,” as part of the biennale’s official Collateral Events.

″Work″ (1973) by Yoo Youngkuk [PKM GALLERY]

“Yoo is the embodiment of the saying, 'life is short, art is long,'” Park said. “The fact that the artistic universe he’s been pursuing during his lifetime continues to be praised today is simply astonishing. We are now in the process of seeing the Korean art scene build a framework of the pedigree that stretches from our great masters to contemporary artists.”

“Yoo Youngkuk: Stand on the Golden Mean” continues until Oct. 10. PKM Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Tuesdays to Sundays. The exhibit is free.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]