작업 소개

57STUDIO는 국립현대미술관의 열린강좌 프로그램 중 미술관 소장품 강좌 시리즈를 제작하였습니다. 윤범모 관장이 직접 작품을 설명하는 형식으로 구성하였으며, 실제 교육 현장에서 효과적인 학습 자료로 활용될 수 있도록 제작되었습니다. 또한, 어느 장면을 캡처하더라도 교육 자료로서의 기능이 충실히 전달될 수 있도록 화면을 구성하였습니다. 이 시리즈는 작가 12명의 작품을 조명하며, 매주 수요일 YouTube LIVE를 통해 공개되었습니다.

57STUDIO produced the Museum Collection Lecture Series as part of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s (MMCA) open lecture program. The series was structured in a format where Director Yoon Bum-mo personally explains each artwork, ensuring its effectiveness as a valuable educational resource for use in learning environments.

The videos were designed so that every frame could function as an informative material, regardless of where it was captured. This series highlights the works of 12 artists and was released weekly via YouTube LIVE every Wednesday.

Lee Ungno, Crowd, 1986

This is a work from the series entitled Crowd, painted in Lee Ungno’s late period. Lee Ungno (artist name: Goam) is one of the great artists who realized unique artworks in Korean art history of the 20th Century. This painting depicts countless people, painted in repetition. A square is filled with people. Seeing Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980 in Paris, Lee began to produce this Crowd series in earnest.

If we carefully look at the painting, we can see innumerable people dancing dynamically in a square. There are countless people repeatedly painted, however, rather than being confined in a fixed frame, The depicted figures look free. Lee expressed similar-sized people in ink with striking brush strokes on paper. If we look closely at the people, it is difficult to distinguish age or gender. We cannot identify who they are, they are just people, In this large piece from the Crowd series, there is a signature at the bottom right. It reads “1986 Ung-No Lee.” Lee began his artistic career with traditional art.

Lee Ungno learned painting under Kim Kyujin. Initially, he produced literati painting, and later, landscape painting. By the end of the late 1950s, by way of Germany, he settled in Paris. After that, he continued to work using various media. As for the genre, he basically worked in ink and brush, but he also produced various three-dimensional works, collages, abstractions, and figurative works consistently. Modernizing the characteristics of ink, brush, and paper, his work develops into an abstraction of letters. Around the period of his abstract painting of letters, contemporary. Then he finally finds his own original aesthetics. However, he is unique in that he expanded the Korean art tradition creatively.

In other words, he integrated the East Asian cultural practices involving paper, brush, and ink into a greater whole and internationalized it widely. Although Lee worked in Paris in his late period, he did not abandon his Asian culture. He continued to highlight the qualities of ink and brush his entire life. His ink painting is remarkable, demonstrating the idea that calligraphy and painting are one thing. A striking feature of ink brush strokes and lines in calligraphyis the vividness and energy concentrated in the painting. Whether the work’s theme is letters, abstraction, figuration, or crowds like this, the energy of ink painting fully fills the space.

In addition to artistic activities, we should also discuss his work as an educator. He taught in the Academy of Oriental Painting that began as the annexation of Musée Cernuschi Museum of Asian Art of the City of Paris, France, where he was dedicated to teaching students in earnest.Recognizably, even in the European context, Lee pursued the culture of ink painting, and expanded it by teaching students as well. Lee underwent a severe ordeal, twice in his life, because of political situations.Accused of the East Berlin Affair, he was imprisoned. Lee left behind many works, even from when in prison. The hardship of imprisonment widened and deepened his art. Lee was an artist who participated in the period of Korean democratization while living abroad.

Goam Lee Ungno is a unique artist who embodied the belief that ‘a painter’s weapon is painting.’ Crowd series of Lee’s late period. Today, together we appreciated Crowd, Lee Ungno’s significant piece that contributed to complete his vision in the art world.