The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) is a space for all to meet and experience the joy of art. Located in the center of Jeong-dong, a district that retains traces of Seoul’s modern and contemporary history, the museum integrates the historical facade of the former Supreme Court with modern architecture. In addition to various programs―encompassing exhibitions, educational outreach initiatives, screenings, workshops, performances, and talks, communal spaces including SeMA Cafe, the artbook store, the open space lobby, and the outdoor sculpture park SeMA WALK provide a rich range of ways for visitors to experience art.(Picture: ⓒ Kim YongKwan)
The office bldg of the museum is designed to best fulfill its role as an administrative office complex while maintaining a fine balance with the seosomun main branch by emphasizing the symmetry of Renaissance architecture. The passage linking the office wing with the exhibition building features a transparent structure that highlights the harmony of the two buildings.
Arriving at the vestibule, museum visitors climb the wooden stairs to reach the second and third floors, gazing at the sky outside the windows as they go up. The wealth of natural light flowing in through the windows creates the space fresh and bright, making it a favorite spot for photographs.
The lobby area between the facade and the interior of the SeMA building is the space where visitors arrive before beginning a tour of the museum. It is a space designed to connect the 1900s, represented by the facade of the museum building, with the 2000s through the artworks exhibited within it. Here, visitors encounter natural light streaming in from the glass ceiling as if to express the different temporal zones of the past and the present.
The historical facade of the Seoul Museum of Art is marked by the the Renaissance-styled portico of three arched entrances, a symbol of the Supreme Court of Korea, which was housed in the building for almost fifty years. The unique architectural value and historical significance of the building led to its designation as Registered Cultural Heritage No. 237 in March 2006.
A walk along the upslope footpath of Deoksugung Palace guides strollers to a beautiful garden full of flowers and large, old trees. The road leading to the SeMA has no walls, so the garden and sculptural works displayed in it can be easily seen from outside. The SeMA Walk, surrounded by large trees that are several hundreds of years old, is used as a venue for the open-air exhibition of sculptural works held every spring.
The institution contains two classrooms used for the lectures and other educational activities on art theories and practices.
Transformed from the previous space that had been used for various artistic experiences, the Auditorium SeMA Hall, which was completed in 2009, is a multi-purpose space providing a venue for academic activities, video screenings, and small-scale performances.
The First Floor Exhibition Gallery is designed to provide a flexible space for special exhibitions via the use of modular tracks that are five and seven meters in length and exhibition partition walls. The gallery has the floor of achromatic colors that creates a neutral atmosphere and background and serves to highlight the nature of the exhibited works. It is the largest (1,180㎡) of all the exhibition galleries at SeMA, and its ceiling is 4.5 meters high.
Since 2019, SeMA Project S has collaborated with writers, architects, and graphic designers to plan and create a lobby as a shared space where visitors can enjoy diverse cultural and artistic activities and as well as relax. The first project of 2019 presents “I wanna be together,” a collaboration between Mire Lee, whose low-tech kinetic sculpture exposes the properties of the work’s materials as they are, and Han Seungjae of FHHH Friends, who focuses on the fundamental functions of architecture.
This space first opened on November 22, 2008 for the convenience of parents with babies or toddlers and is equipped with baby feeding and nursing facilities.
※ Note: Open to children under five accompanied by a parent or adult guardian / No food or drink is allowed inside.
Located in the east of the building’s first floor, this cafe provides a pleasant place to relax and enjoy tea and snacks after viewing an exhibition.
The Second Floor Exhibition Gallery (435㎡) is designed to exploit the natural light brought deep into the interior through the glass ceiling at the center above the third floor, making viewers feel as if they are in an open-air exhibition space. The atrium also helps the gallery have extra height, although its ceiling is only 3.6 meters high, and creates a greater sense of openness. The hall also uses artificial lighting designed to best fit the environment, and it features wooden flooring throughout.
SeMA’s Art Library is open to all art-loving visitors, providing them an opportunity to access SeMA’s collection of art books, exhibition catalogues, videos, and other materials on art, as well as events held at the space. Since August 2012, SeMA has run the art library designed to support artists and specialists in the art field by providing them information on artists, art institutions, and publications on art. The books in library are also accessible online through SeMA’s official website. (Open from 10:00 to 18:00 on Tuesdays to Saturdays, and closed on public holidays)
A pioneering figure in the unique genre of Korean painting,Chun Kyung-ja (1924–2015) donated her collection of 93 of her own paintings to SeMA in 1998, offering art-lovers in Korea and overseas a rare opportunity to appreciate her remarkable works of art. The collection provided in this gallery (260㎡) comprises figure paintings, including her self-portraits, travel paintings, and drawings that she produced over a period of approximately sixty years, from the 1940s to the 1990s.
This gallery (178㎡) displays a collection of 200 works of art donated by Gana Art (represented by Lee Ho-jae) to SeMA in 2001. These pieces, widely regarded as representative works of Korean realism, comprise 130 paintings, including 10 Korean traditional paintings, 7 prints, and 23 sculptures produced from the 1960s to the 1990s. A large number of these donated works are connected to the Minjung Art movement that thrived during the 1980s, as Korea was struggling to settle democracy. These works were created by 46 artists who were members of the artists’ groups Reality and Utterance (Hyeonsilgwa Bareon), Gwangju Association of Liberal Artists (Gwangju Jayumisurin Hyeophoe), Durong, and The Imsul Year (Imsulnyeon).
Left: This gallery (340㎡) on the third floor features a disk-shaped ceiling designed to allow in natural light.
Right: This gallery (435㎡) is marked by the highest ceiling (approximately 6 meters high) of all the exhibition halls at SeMA. At the center of the ceiling is a glass pyramid dome designed to bring natural light deep into the interior, creating a sense of openness that allows for the exhibition of large works of art. The natural light is brought further down to the second floor through the open space at the center of the building, helping to connect the exhibitions on both floors. However, the space is flexible enough such that the floors may be used separately by utilizing the device designed to divide the space as needed.
This miniature gallery (30㎡) located between the central exhibition hall on the third floor and the lobby features a high ceiling (approximately 10 meters high) and a trapezoidal floor enclosed by glass walls that radiate brightness with the help of artificial lighting. As the “crystal wall” has been designed so that its brilliance can be appreciated by visitors in the lobby, this gallery is typically used for the exhibition of works that can best represent the vision of SeMA, or the curator’s concept for the exhibition plan.
This small gallery (100㎡) on the third floor of the building is largely used to introduce the visitors to the forefront of contemporary art, as proposed by the museum’s curator, where visual art is intertwined with other art genres such as music, literature, and dance, focusing on various issues affecting society.
SeMA x The Reference, an art bookstore located on the third floor between the exhibition galleries, offers a wide range of books on contemporary culture and art, including artist books, art museum exhibition books, and books on art criticism and art theory. Furthermore, the curated selection of exhibition-related art books builds a cultural and artistic foundation and extends visitors’ experience of the museum beyond exhibitions to encompass books as well.
61, Deoksugung-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea (04515)
82-2-2124-8800