Photography Seoul Museum of Art is pleased to present its third special inaugural exhibition, All That Photography (November 26, 2025–March 1, 2026).
The first exhibition to span across the entire museum space, All That Photography showcases works from both the Seoul Museum of Art’s collection and artists’ works that use “photography” or “photographic imagery” as a medium of creation after the late 1950s, the point in time generally considered to be the birth of Korean contemporary art. The exhibition highlights the process through which photography has served as a creative tool for artists to open new worlds of expression, and the pivotal role photography has performed in the expansion of contemporary art.
The late 1950s marked a turning point in Korean art, as artists began to search for a new visual language in the aftermath of the Korean War. New groups such as Modern Art Society, Creative Art Association, Neo-Plasticism Group, Contemporary Artists Association emerged, transforming art into a site of experimentation that challenged the existing institutional system. In the same year, Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Artists, organized by The Chosun Ilbo, brought these movements together as a cohesive art trend, opening the full-fledged chapter of avant-garde modern art in Korea. In its short period of establishment, the Contemporary Artists Association led the establishment of abstract art in Korea through Art Informel, serving as a catalyst for change in the conservative system long centered on National Art Exhibition. Meanwhile, Modern Art Society pursued a structured and restrained formal beauty following the lineage of New Realism Group, laying the foundation for distinctly Korean Modernism. By the 1960s, however, Art Informel began to solidify into mere formality, and the younger generation sought new directions. Experiments with various mediums in movements like Object, Pop Art, Op Art, and experimentations with space culminated in Young Artists Coalition Exhibition in 1967, signaling a new avant garde phase that transcended the limitations of postwar abstraction. This experimental energy expanded through the activities of groups such as S.T. (Space and Time Group), A.G. (Korean Avant-Garde Association), Independent, and the Daegu Contemporary Art Festival in the 1970s, forming a current that challenged institutional authority and formal conventions. By the 1980s, young artists were actively pursuing new visual languages and material experiments in reaction against the conceptual tendencies of monochrome abstraction.
Within this historical trajectory, the exhibition introduces works and archival materials by 36 leading Korean artists―from Lee Seung Taek (b.1932) and Kim Kulim (b.1936) to Lee Inhyeon (b.1958)―who employed photography as an avant-garde medium.
Influenced by international art movements, these artists created with their artistic language, reflecting the social realities of Korea and sensibilities of the time in their work.
Notably, the exhibition features works that have never been shown by Kim Myong Hi, Lee Kang So, Chang Hwa Jin, and Chung Dongsuk, as well as rare precious works that were last shown 40–50 years ago, by major figures in Korean contemporary art, including Kim Kulim, Kim Yongchul, Kim Tschoon Su, Suh Yong-Sun, Shin Hak Chool, Kyuchul Ahn, Ahn Changhong, Lee Inhyeon, and Han Man-Young.
All That Photography explores the value and influence of photography as a medium that transcends the boundaries of painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation, and video, opening new layers of artistic expression. This exhibition also envisions the future direction of Photography Seoul Museum of Art in its curatorial and scholarly practices.
