By Kwon Mee-yoo

 

 

Masterpieces of Everyday Life from the Whitney Museum of American Art,” which is underway at the National Museum of Art in Deoksugung, a branch of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea (MOCA), in central Seoul.

As American art is not so familiar to the Korean audience, the exhibition is designed to introduce not only American art but American culture in general.

Bringing in the masterpieces

이번 서울특별전에 휘트니 미술관은 댄프라빈,로이 리이텐슈테인,올덴버그,앤디와홀,먼레이 등을 포함한 47명작가 87점의 현대회화 작품을 제공하고 있다.
The Whitney Museum of American Art provided 87 works by 47 artists, including Man Ray, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein and Dan Flavin, for this exhibition. Established in 1931, the Whitney is dedicated to American art. Unlike other celebrated contemporary art museums like The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney has a broad collection of works only by American artists in any form and produced after the 20th century.

It took some five days to bring in the artworks and install them in the Seoul museum. Around 20 people worked during the installation, including a curator, a registrar, an art handler and a coordinator from the Whitney, five staff members from MOCA and experts from a fine art transportation company.



The pieces were put into 50 crates and arrived in two separate shipments to prevent loss of all the works together in case of unexpected events such as a plane crash. The crates were opened in two days. Officials from the Whitney and MOCA inspected and photographed each piece after unpacking them. The works were then brought to the designated spots and laid on soft blankets.

Where the works will be displayed is usually decided before the pieces arrive, but some changes can be made on-site according to the decision of curators.

For instance, the curator can decide how to arrange “Giant Fagends” of Oldenburg, which is composed of an enlarged ashtray and several cigarette butts.

“They can be placed in various ways as long as they stay in the room. This is a long space and I want visitors to go through the butts,” Whitney curator Carter Foster said.



The American Art

The exhibition presents the American masterpieces in three sections — “American Icon and Everyday Life,” “Object and Identity” and “Object and Perception.” There was no such distinction in the original collection, but Park Young-ran, senior curator of MOCA, came up with the division to provide a better understanding for Korean visitors.

“These objects are used by Americans everyday and we can peek into their lives through the artworks,” Park said.

The first section, “American Icon and Everyday Life,” views the capitalist consumer culture through artworks overwhelming with products and logos of American products.

Warhol’s “Green Coca-Cola Bottles” and “Brillo Box” captures a side of consumerism with repetitive images, while Lichtenstein reproduces Henri Matisse’s “Goldfish and Sculpture” in his own way.



The “Object and Identity” section presents artworks that rather focus on personal meaning and identity, not bound to popular culture.
Marisol Escobar’s “Women and Dog” attaches an expressionless face of a Caucasian woman, a photo of the artist herself, the face of an African-American girl and a stuffed dog’s head on wooden crates, portraying the diversity of American society.

On the second floor, the “Object and Perception” section has more surrealistic works and those that relate to visual and spatial perception. Oldenburg’s works such as “Soft Dormeyer Mixer” and “Braselette” reverse the stereotype, while Ray combines a metronome and a photo of an eye at “Objet Indestructible.”

Last but not least, a special section titled “American Modernism” features paintings of John Sloan, Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keeffe, portraying the beginning of modern art in the U.S. in the early 20th century.

Sloan’s “Backyards, Greenwich Village” captures the scenery of a back alley where laundry is hanging, children are making a snowman and a black cat is leaving pawprints in the snow.

Park admitted introducing such contemporary art might be adventurous in Korea. “Koreans’ taste in art still dwells in a time some 100 years ago in works by the likes of Park Soo-keun, Lee Jung-sup and Pablo Picasso and modern artists are less known,” the curator said. “These modern works might look distinctive, but they use ordinary everyday objects and have personal stories behind them.”

She suggested enjoying “The American Art.” “Art is not difficult. The thing to watch out for is a new, fresh perspective on everyday objects,” Park said.

The exhibition runs through Sept. 25. To boost better understanding of the works, the museum offers docent programs six times a day — three times in Korean, once in English and twice for children — on weekdays. Additional Korean docent programs are available on weekends.

For more information about the exhibition, visit www.moca.go.kr/engN or call (02) 2022-0600.