In hopes of sharing the works of Kwon Jin Kyu, the family of the late artist and the KWON JINKYU FOUNDATION donated 141 works of art by the artist to the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) in July, 2021. While the collection includes sculptures, clay models, reliefs, drawings, and oil paintings from years spanning between the 1950s and 1970s, it is particularly meaningful as it includes Kwon’s major works from the 1950s. In 2022, to honor the donor and to celebrate the centennial anniversary of Kwon’s birth, SeMA presented the retrospective Kwon Jin Kyu Centennial: Angel of Atelier (March 24th – May 22nd , 2022) and co-hosted Kwon Jin Kyu 100 Years Celebration Symposium with Society of Korean Modern and Contemporary Art History which corrected errors in existing research and produced new research results. SeMA then co-hosted the touring exhibition Kwon Jin Kyu, A sculptor of eternity (August 2nd - October 23rd, 2022) with Gwangju Museum of Art. In 2023, to mark the 50th anniversary of Kwon Jin Kyu’s passing, SeMA made a permanent exhibition gallery on the first floor of the Nam-Seoul Museum of Art, which was the former Belgian Consulate. Both the former Belgian Consulate and Kwon Jin Kyu went through a turbulent contemporary era. The Korean Empire built a Belgian consulate in Hoehyeon-dong, Jung-gu, in the process of diplomatic solidarity with Belgium while pursuing a neutral country policy to protect its sovereignty amid the global powers. However, as the neutralization of the Korean Empire failed, the building was used for various purposes after liberation, but was relocated to Namhyeon-dong, Gwanak-gu as an urban redevelopment project. Then in 2004, Woori Bank, the owner, leased it to the Seoul Government permanently for free, and it is operated as an art museum. Kwon Jin Kyu worked as a sculptor while traveling between Korea and Japan with difficulty during the break in diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan after Japanese colonial era and liberation. Now, the Nam-Seoul Museum of Art and Kwon’s work reinforce each other’s existence and meaning by embracing each other.
To Kwon Jin Kyu, a true work was the result of tireless observation and study that captured solely the simple most essence of the subject. It was neither realism nor beauty, but the unfading soul and eternity that Kwon pursued. Thus, he traversed the boundaries between the abstract and the figurative, ancient, and modern, east and the west, female and male, and the mortal world and afterlife. In the end, Kwon sought to create works that would turn all this into nothingness, i.e., to embody modernity.
As Kwon proposed in his poem saying “history repeats the functional relationship of the power of truth,” the time has now come to take a fresh, unprejudiced look at his works in the contemporary art that places no constraints. In response, SeMA presents the permanent exhibition Kwon Jin Kyu Forever Home, reflecting his research achievements so far. The exhibition is composed of works and materials in seven sub-topics including “New Sculpture,” “Domo Ogino,” and “Equal Body” from the Musashino Art School in Tokyo, and “Inner World,” “Inspiration,” “Nidana,” and “Devotion” from his studio in Seoul. In addition, SeMA aims to connect major institutions related to Kwon Jin Kyu through the Nam-Seoul Museum of Art, share works and materials, and actively support researchers to produce new research outcomes. The permanent exhibition will be updated regularly to reflect new research achievements by replacing artworks and materials. Thus, the Nam-seoul Museum of Art will be a home where Kwon Jin Kyu’s soul nestle forever.
