October 7, 2014–February 1, 2015
Lee Ungno Museum
157 Dunsandae-ro
Seo-gu, Daejeon 302-834
South Korea
T +82 (0) 42 611 9821
helloart [at] leeungnomuseum.or.kr
Beginning on October 7, the Lee Ungno Museum will be hosting the exhibition Art Informel in Paris: Lee Ungno, Hans Hartung, Pierre Soulages, and Zao Wou-ki. Held in joint commemoration of the 110th anniversary of Lee Ungno and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Académie de Peinture Orientale de Paris, the exhibition spotlights Lee Ungno and the works of three world-class artists—Hans Hartung, Pierre Soulages, and Zao Wou-ki—who were artistic, educational, and political supporters of Lee.
Hailing from Korea, Germany, France, and China, respectively, Lee, Hartung, Soulages, and Zao each came from different cultural backgrounds. These artists, who directly and indirectly experienced the brutality of war, criticized the rationalism of the Western world because they so keenly felt the futility and depression in post-war Europe. They also attempted to regain freedom and subjectivity, which they had disregarded until then, in unformed art, or “Art Informel.”
Another feature of the European art world was the popularity of calligraphy and ink paintings. Hartung, Soulages, and Zao Wou-Ki shared their interest in Eastern art, and they themselves created such paintings. All three of them also sponsored the Academie de Peinture Orientale de Paris, which had been established by “Goam” Lee Ungno and V. Elisseeff of Musée Cernuschi director in 1964.
Lee, Hartung, Soulages, and Zao, who were all in France in the 1960s, began to develop different takes on the dominant informel style of the time, producing unique works of their own.
The exhibition features the works of Lee Ungno, who went to France in 1958 and modernized Eastern painting; Hans Hartung, whose art work is characterized by dynamic linear movement and large stains; Pierre Soulages, who has become one of the most prominent figures in modern French abstract art with his use of black; and Zao Wou-ki, a Chinese artist who moved to France in 1948 and combined Asian traditions with modern Western art to create a unique brand of abstract art.
This exhibition is composed of artworks from the Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP), Fondation Hartung Bergman, and the Lee Ungno Museum, and will be the first time that Lee Ungno’s “Composition,” which is currently housed at CNAP, is displayed in Korea. Composed of the representative artworks of Hartung, Soulages, and Zao, the exhibition is also a valuable opportunity for visitors to experience the quintessence of art informel. This exhibition consists mainly of various works by Hartung, Soulages, and Zao Wou-Ki, which give the audience a glimpse into their different worlds and styles of art.
