Seundja Rhee: Towards the Antipodes

2024.4.20 – 2024.11.24

ArteNova, Castello 5063, Venice

- KoRICA (Korean Research Institute of Contemporary Art) presents Seundja Rhee: Towards the Antipodes, a solo exhibition of Seundja Rhee (1918–2009) as a Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, with the support of the Seundja Rhee Foundation and Gallery Hyundai

- Curated by Bartomeu Marí, former Director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), Seoul, this presentation includes approximately twenty paintings spanning five decades of Rhee’s career, from 1959 through 2008

- Rhee hails from the first generation of Korean abstract artists and was one of the first Korean artists to move to France, where she lived and worked for six decades

- Having received her formal training in Paris, Rhee embraced influences from both Western and Eastern modern and contemporary art, achieving a unique formal language that amalgamated and unified these distinctive binaries

- Although a painter by practice, Rhee’s expansive body of work encompasses woodcut prints, sculptures, ceramics, tapestries, mosaics, and illustrated poetry books

- In the artist’s own words, her work is identified by nine distinct themes, arranged in chronological order: Figurative, Abstract, Woman and Earth, Superimposition, City, Yin and Yang, Timelessness, Nature, Road to the Antipodes, and Cosmos

The essence of my painting, I would say, 

Is to capture the most marvelous scenery on this Earth.

Our space where material and object altogether become a geometric “life”—

The absolute? 

- Excerpt from Seundja Rhee’s poem, 1980 

KoRICA (Korean Research Institute of Contemporary Art), with the support of the Seundja Rhee Foundation and Gallery Hyundai, is pleased to present Seundja Rhee: Towards the Antipodes, a solo exhibition of Seundja Rhee (1918–2009). This exhibition is a Collateral Event of the Biennale Arte 2024, taking place at ArteNova (Castello 5063) from April 20 through November 24, 2024. Rhee is widely recognized as the only woman artist of her generation who has spearheaded Korean abstract art, alongside her contemporaries Kim Whanki and Yoo Youngkuk. Across six decades of her prolific practice, Rhee took to the East Asian theory of yin and yang and the five elements that make up the universe (Eumyangohaeng) as her conceptual bedrock. Such influences are demonstrated through her amalgamation of Eastern and Western artistic and cultural contexts after emigrating to France in 1951, which became her second home where she learned the canons of Western painting, while simultaneously fusing her academic studies with her unique philosophical sensibilities. 

Seundja Rhee: Towards the Antipodes marks the first occasion after Rhee’s passing in 2009 that the artist’s solo exhibition is held in a country that is neither her Korean motherland nor her second home of France. Approximately twenty paintings spanning five decades of her career—from 1959 through 2008—are on view, providing a platform to reexamine Rhee’s continued formal experimentation and aesthetic evolution throughout the years, while at the same time steadfastly embracing the milieu of her time. Curated by Bartomeu Marí, an independent curator and writer, who was formerly Director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), Seoul, this presentation densely encapsulates Rhee’s lifetime career more than a centennial after her birth, introducing to the global audience of the Biennale Arte 2024 her intercontinental practice transcending the binaries of the East and West as far as seven decades ago. On the upcoming exhibition, Marí has stated: “The global art audience will discover an artist concerned with interpreting the world, the cosmos, in its relation to individuals and humans in general. As women artists have been traditionally ignored or undervalued, it is an occasion to rediscover how painting belongs to the great narratives of expression and sharing. The history of modern art in Korea is richer when Seundja Rhee’s work reaches a new level of global relevance.” Having constructed a singular creative language unrestricted to the prevailing modern and contemporary art movements in Korea and France, the latter of which she spent more than half of her life, Rhee’s biography epitomizes a life spent as the “other” and highlights the inextricable connection to the theme of this year’s Biennale Arte: Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere. 

In 1951, amidst the Korean War, Seundja Rhee left for Paris, one of the main international art hubs and the capital of a country where Rhee would spend the following sixty years as a professional artist. In an attempt to overcome her tragic personal experience of becoming estranged from her three beloved sons, she enrolled in the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris in 1953 with little to no prior experience in art, when she was already in her mid-thirties. Having encountered the language of visual art for the first time, Rhee quickly absorbed modern European influences. Unbound by the mission to convey the contemporary social milieu and ideologies that weighed on many other artists at the time, she focused instead on developing her unique artistic perspective and trajectory. Graced with strong determination and abounding ingenuity, she created not only paintings but also woodcut prints, sculptures, ceramics, tapestries, mosaics, and illustrated poetry books, and placed many notable works in public institutions. 

From the mid-1950s, the artist began to identify nine distinct themes that would chronologically interlink her expansive body of work. The first three consist of: Figurative (1954–1956), which depicts solid compositions that reflect Rhee’s extensive training at Académie de la Grande Chaumière; Abstract (1957–1960), following an eye-opening trip to Amsterdam in 1956 that served as an impetus to overcome, or unlearn, the conventions of academic training by replacing representational objects with point, line, and plane; and Woman and Earth (1961–1968), featuring a pictorial plane invigorated with multiple layers of short, thick lines of vivid oil colors reminiscent of pointillism, or evoking the historical Korean craft of Hwamunseok (patterned woven sedge mats) or the tilling of soil. Quickly becoming the subject of widespread critical acclaim in Paris at the time, Woman and Earth bears Rhee’s self-studied medium of woodcut prints in the form of oil brushstrokes, resulting in an intense organic materiality rarely seen in pointillist paintings of Post-Impressionism. Woman and Earth serves as an iconic example of Rhee’s early formal language and is intensely redolent of her personal narrative—the longing for homeland, her three sons, and her mother. Such aching sentiments are reflected in titles of individual works such as A Mother I Remember (1962), Sweet Sunrays (1963), and Ojak-kio (1965) which, as poetic condensations, expand beyond their rudimentary function as titles into extensions of the works themselves. 

As one of her key artistic concepts, “the Earth as Mother” would remain an axis that consistently informs Rhee’s later works. In the late 1960s, the artist began to actively travel between Korea, France, and the United States. Her visits to major cosmopolitan cities such as New York City and Washington D.C. led to the creation of the Superimposition (1969–1971) and City (1972–1974) series, which portrayed cities built upon the earth as sites gestating manmade energy. From the 1970s, she began to split her recurrent circular motifs, which first appeared in the Abstract series, into convex and concave semicircles, utilizing them as symbols of yin and yang, bridging paradoxical elements such as nature and machinery, death and life, the East and West, Korea and France. The artist continued to diligently employ this motif throughout the remainder of her career including the Yin and Yang, Timelessness (1975–1976) and Nature (1977–1979) series, where she appears to momentarily gaze into a transcendent time where she can reflect on her past, away from the Earth and cities of the present reality. Rhee’s awe of nature, as well as her merging of the yin and yang motif that constructs Korea’s taegeuk symbol, forges her continued path of abstraction informed by the methods and forms of Western painting she adopted during her time in France. 

As a witness to, and at times a victim of, the discrimination amidst the tumult of both Korean and European 20th-century modern history and the still male-dominant art scene, transcendence of time and space became Rhee’s fuel to not only merge binaries but also to envision a utopian world. Road to the Antipodes (1980–1994) serves as a kind of memoir and diary of her travels between two countries at opposite antipodes that were equally important in the artist’s life, a fond yet sentimental record of the Alaskan landscape looked upon from a plane while flying between France and Korea. After settling in Tourrettes in Southern France in her later years, the artist’s gaze trailed upwards as she spent nights searching for constellations in the starry night skies, dreaming of a transcendent, infinite cosmos liberated from the territorial restrictions between Korea and France and of social constraints placed on her as a woman artist through her final works in the Cosmos (1995–2008) series. 

Within the history of Korean modern and contemporary art, Seundja Rhee is considered the first generation of women abstract artists. Her precision, subtlety, determination, and innate aptitude in communication skills enabled the artist’s active engagement with the Parisian art community and supplemented critical elements that were often overlooked in the heretofore male-dominated history of art. At a time when Dansaekhwa and Minjung art prevailed in Korea, as did abstraction in the West, Rhee embraced influences from both Western and Eastern modern and contemporary art, achieving a unique formal language that amalgamated and unified these distinctive binaries. Furthermore, before the age of widespread internet, the artist had already begun to disseminate the East Asian theory of yin and yang to wider audiences. As such, she endeavored for a synthesis between the yin and yang, the East and West, the earth and the skies, and other dichotomies, amounting to the harmonious union between mankind and nature, along with the incorporation of cosmic landscapes into a transcendent, abstract pictorial plane. Even as Rhee experienced the traumas of the Japanese Occupation and the Korean War, as well as the inequalities of patriarchal social norms, throughout her life she remained dedicated to her aesthetic vision as both a mother and an artist, realizing a complete harmony between her life and art.  

About the Artist 

Seundja Rhee (1918–2009) graduated from Jissen Women’s University, Tokyo, and studied art at Académie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris. Within five years of studying art, she held her first solo exhibition in Paris in 1958 at Galerie Lara Vincy with recommendations from the Surrealist painter Henri Goetz and art critic Georges Boudaille. In 1975, she represented Korea in the 13th Bienal de São Paulo alongside Kim Whanki, Lee Ungno, and Nam Kwan.

Rhee has been the subject of solo exhibitions at galleries and institutions worldwide including Gallery Hyundai, Seoul (nine exhibitions between 1974 and 2018); the MMCA in Gyeongbokgung, Seoul (1970), Deoksugung (1978), and Gwacheon (1988, 2018); Gyeongnam Art Museum, Changwon (2008); Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris (2001); Musée de la Citadelle, Villefranche-sur-Mer (1999); International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C. (1997); Centre Culturel Coréen en France, Paris (1996); Librairie-Galerie Jacques Matarasso, Nice (1991); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice (1988); Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles (1986); UNESCO, Paris (1984); Seibu Gallery, Tokyo (1969); and Galerie Charpentier, Paris (1964), among others. Her fourth solo exhibition at the MMCA in 2018, Road to the Antipodes, celebrated the 100th anniversary of her birth. Rhee was also part of group exhibitions at Salon de Comparaison, Musée d’Art modern de la ville de Paris, Paris; Bordeaux Museum of Fine Arts, Bordeaux; Salon de Mai, Musée d’Art modern de la ville de Paris, Paris; École de Paris, Paris; the MMCA in Gyeongbokgung, Deoksugung, and Gwacheon; Château-Mairie de Tourrettes sur Loup, Tourrettes; Salon d’Automne, Paris; Maison de la Culture André Malraux, Reims; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; Gallery Hyundai, Seoul; Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris; Espace Riquet, Béziers; Musèe d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris; Grand Palais, Paris; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; Borås Art Museum, Borås; Palais des beaux-arts de Liège, Liège; Musée d’art modern et contemporain Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya; Iwate Museum of Art, Morioka; The National Museum of Art, Osaka; and Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka, Rijeka. In her lifetime, Rhee held approximately 80 solo exhibitions and 300 group shows. 

Seundja Rhee is the recipient of the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, Academy of Arts,

France, in 1991 and Officier of the Order of Arts and Letters, Academy of Arts, France, in 2002. She was also posthumously awarded the 10th Prix Culturel France-Corée and Bogwan Order of Cultural Merit, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea, in 2009. Rhee’s works are housed in the permanent collections of major institutions such as the MMCA, Seoul; Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul; Ho-Am Art Museum, Yongin; Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul; Art Sonje Center, Seoul; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée d’arts de Nantes, Nantes; Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP), Paris; Musée d’art modern et contemporain Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne; Château-musée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-Mer; Musée Magnelli, Musée de la céramique, Vallauris; Médiathèques d'Issy-les-Moulineaux, Issy-les-Moulineaux; and Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris. 

Seundja Rhee is the recipient of the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, Academy of Arts, France, in 1991 and Officier of the Order of Arts and Letters, Academy of Arts, France, in 2002. She was also posthumously awarded the 10th Prix Culturel France-Corée and Bogwan Order of Cultural Merit, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea, in 2009. Rhee’s works are housed in the permanent collections of major institutions such as the MMCA, Seoul; Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul; Ho-Am Art Museum, Yongin; Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul; Art Sonje Center, Seoul; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée d’arts de Nantes, Nantes; Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP), Paris; Musée d’art modern et contemporain Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne; Château-musée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-Mer; Musée Magnelli, Musée de la céramique, Vallauris; Médiathèques d'Issy-les-Moulineaux, Issy-les-Moulineaux; and Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris. 

Bartomeu Marí

Bartomeu Marí is an unaffiliated Spanish curator and critic. His curatorial experience extends from his position as Curator at IVAM-Centre Julio González, Valencia and as Curator of Exhibitions at the Fondation pour l’Architecture, followed by directorships at the Witte de With, Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam and Centro Internacional de Cultura Contemporánea in Donostia-San Sebastián, Basque Country. From 2004 to 2008, he served as Chief Curator and later—from 2008 to 2015—as Director at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona. Between 2015 and 2018, he served as Director of the MMCA, where he organized Seundja Rhee’s centennial exhibition, Road to the Antipodes. He also co-curated the 2002 Taipei Biennial with Chia Chi Jason Wang and curated the Spanish Pavilion at the 51st International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia in 2005. Marí has curated numerous exhibitions on modern and contemporary artists including Lawrence Weiner, Francis Picabia, Rita McBride, Marcel Broodthaers, Joan Jonas, Francis Alÿs, and John Baldessari. 

KoRICA (Korean Research Institute of Contemporary Art)

Founded in 2021, KoRICA aims to highlight the historical status of Korean art and to link contexts between Korea and the rest of the world. Korean art history abounds with narratives of artists who channeled the spirit of their time through art as they experienced the tumult of the 20th century. Contemporary Korean artists project universal human values while also striving to share with global audiences the autonomous and immanent traditions passed down throughout Korean history, as interpreted through each of their aesthetic sensibilities. In honor of such endeavors, KoRICA supports a range of ventures that bridge Korean and global art in hopes to actively contribute to the globalization of Korean art, including the international exchange of Korean artists, research and documentation of Korean modern and contemporary art, and provision of research grants. In February of 2024, KoRICA inaugurated Sorol Art Museum in Gangneung, with the mission “to discover the aesthetic connections between Korean art and global art, [and] aiming to promote the historical value of Korean art in the global art scene.”

Seundja Rhee Foundation

Established in 2010 to commemorate the lifetime work of Seundja Rhee, the Seundja Rhee Foundation was founded by Shin Yong Keuk, the artist’s youngest son and President of Euro Trading Company, who also published a 1993 catalogue raisonné on Rhee’s prints and launched a digital archive on Rhee’s body of work. The Foundation supports ongoing research that highlights Rhee’s artistic achievements and compiles archives on her history. The Foundation also collects, manages, and conserves Rhee’s works in order to bolster her legacy and contribute to the cultural and artistic development of Korea at large, by underscoring the relevance of her work today. 

Gallery Hyundai

After opening doors in Insa-dong, Seoul, as “Hyundai Hwarang” on April 4, 1970, Gallery Hyundai has since spearheaded the development of Korean art by radically introducing contemporary art to the Korean art scene which was heretofore centered on historical art and artifacts. Gallery Hyundai was the first commercial gallery to introduce works by iconic Korean modern masters including Park Soo-keun and Lee Jung Seob, contributing to their lasting legacies today. The gallery also championed Korean abstract art long before the widespread recognition of Dansaekhwa, staging exhibitions of important artists such as Kim Whanki, Yoo Youngkuk, Yun Hyong-keun, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Park Seo-Bo, Chung Sang-Hwa, Lee Ufan, and Seundja Rhee. From the 1980s, the gallery program was critically acclaimed for aptly introducing ambitious presentations of international artists including Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude. In 1987, Gallery Hyundai presented at EXPO Chicago as the first-ever Korean gallery to participate in an international art fair, playing a major role in acquainting Korean artists with audiences abroad. In addition, Gallery Hyundai’s steadfast promotion of seminal artists such as Nam June Paik, Quac Insik, Seung-taek Lee, Park Hyunki, Lee Kang-So, Lee Kun-Yong, and Sung Neung Kyung has led to the global recognition of Korean experimental art and its lasting footprint as one of the most significant avant-garde practices of the 20th century. The gallery continues to discover and highlight emerging and mid-career Korean artists such as Minjung Kim, Yun-Hee Toh, Chung Zuyoung, Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho, Ayoung Kim, Seulgi Lee, Jin Han Lee, Yang Jung Uk, Kim Sung Yoon, and Kang Seung Lee. Published by Gallery Hyundai in 1973 and 1988, the art magazines Hwarang and Hyundai Misul still remain today as vivid documentations of the contemporary art scene in Korea decades ago, evincing the gallery’s mission to far surpass the functions of a commercial art gallery. In addition to the Gallery Hyundai and Hyundai Hwarang spaces in Seoul, the gallery operates a showroom in Tribeca, New York City, as a platform to further champion Korean artists abroad.