For its first exhibition of 2018, Nam Seoul Museum of Art has prepared 《The Portrait with(out) Artists》 as a step towards becoming a hospitable and friendly art museum, an art museum with a heart. 《The Portrait with(out) Artists》 is an exhibition that explores the portraits of Korean artists and the portrait of contemporary art photographed by renowned photo artists in Korea.
The faces of art personalities such as artists, poets, novelists, film directors and actors from the 1970s to 2000s, captured by representative photographers such as Joo Myung Duck, YOOK Myeongshim, Koo Bohnchang, and Hein-kuhn Oh, form the center of this exhibition. Another axis of the exhibition in this time of universalization of photo media, represented by mobile phone camera and SNS, is not just to retro-illuminate the portrait of the artists, but to have an opportunity to contemplate on the meaning of the artist and the art in the contemporary art of 'here and now' through the photography of young photo artists such as Kyungwoo Chun, Hyun-doo Park, Jeong Kyungja and Kim Moon. Lastly, through the archives (handwritten manus, first editions, etc.) of literary people prepared in one corner of the exhibition hall, we will look again at the altered meaning of art.
We invite you to this exhibition which reflects on the continuously changing meaning of artist and art through the medium of photography that has become a familiar part of everyday life. Please come and feel the warm spring day of Nam Seoul Museum of Art.