Two exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon (MMCA), shed light on two 80-year-old doyens who made their way through the development of contemporary art in Korea, with careers spanning five decades.
"Yoon SeungJoong: Architecture, Drawing As Sentence Construction" centers around Yoon Seung-joong, the architect who laid the groundwork for modern architecture in Korea, while "Han Chung-Shik: Koyo" pays tribute to the photographer who expanded the aesthetic categories of Korean photography to formalism. These two are part of the museum's Korean Contemporary Artists Series.
Both of the artists' works are close to daily life, bringing art a step closer to everyday life. Han's photography captures familiar objects such as trees and Yoon designed buildings seen every day such as the Supreme Court of Korea.
The Yoon exhibit, co-organized by the MMCA's curator Jeong Da-young and Remark Press' Lee Jae-jun, the exhibit features 150 floor plans, sketches and models of Yoon's of the Wondoshi Architects Group.
Yoon is best known as the architect behind Sungkyunkwan University's Natural Sciences Campus (1979) in Suwon and the Gwangju National Science Museum (2009) as well as the Supreme Court of Korea (1990).
Lee said the exhibit focuses on how the architect relates with the needs of the times.