The exhibition features artworks about true outer and inner beauty of Korea, China, and Japan. It is being held at the museum’s Temporary Exhibition Hall and Modern Art Gallery.
The aim of this exhibition is to provide a chance to see the different aesthetics of human beauty among East Asian countries, which reflect and at the same time to compare the different sense of beauty based on each country’s political, cultural and social backgrounds.
The museum planned the exhibition to cast new light on what it means to be truly beautiful people in this modern lookism society, where people are judged more for their appearance rather than their inner values.
At the Temporary Exhibition Hall, traditional artifacts from Korea, China, and Japan are featured. Beautiful People in Korean Art are expressed by various portraits in five different categories: seekers of purity, practitioners of justice, possessors of elegance, creators of beauty, and performers of good deeds. The Chinese art exhibition shows diverse collections of beautiful people through sculptures of the late Han period to modern paintings. The Japanese art exhibition presents righteous monks who initiated the innovation of Buddhism in Japan, singers and performers of traditional Japanese string instruments and gorgeous women who were regarded as beautiful.
In the Modern Art Gallery, 16 pieces of artworks including painting, sculptures, photos, and video pieces designed by 10 modern artists from each of the three countries are displayed.
Main artworks include “Blue Room” made by Yun Suk-Nam, “Mother’s Series” of Ishiuchi Miyako, “Terracotta Figures of Civilian Workers in the Republic of China” worked by Wen Fang.
“The Art Show will be more meaningful if visitors make a comparison of each country’s different aspects of beautiful people,” said Kang Eun-ju, a docent from the museum. “The three countries differ from the prevailing Western standards for beauty.”
Lee Min-jeong
mjlee@ewhaian.net